A Second Chance
by Dgcakes
Summary: When an Attackbot strikes Ziggy, causing him to turn into a kid, the team has to protect and raise their friend. Will they be able to give Ziggy a second chance at life or will it be snuffed out before it gets going? Slash, AU, D/Z, K/T Still In Prog.
1. Prologue

**Author's Note: **Just another lil bit of fun, written at the urging of some friends. Thanks to QueenRiley for the inspiration for this. If you want to read a wonderful story with a similar premise to this fic, you should check out her fic 'Innocence' – it's amazing.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Power Rangers or any related media or characters. The story idea is partly own but the rest isn't. Everything is copyrighted to its respective owners.

**WARNING!:** This fic will contain slash, femslash and possibly even some het (le gasp). Fic rating might change depending on what I write for later chapters, but I will warn before any mature scenes. Please keep this in mind.

**Extra Note: **Contains some spoilers for certain plot points in the series, maybe. Slight AU since it strays from canon – but most of my fics do that, ne?.

* * *

He was the hardest to deal with of all the team. The youngest ranger in the group, the one they hadn't wanted. Ziggy was barely out of those awkward teenaged years, barely old enough to be considered an adult by some standards. The boy was nervous, dorky, he babbled too much, he boasted too much, he couldn't do some of the most basic tasks, and gods he was annoying some days, never shutting that mouth of his. And yet...beneath all of that, there was something endearing about the Green Ranger. Something that made him tolerable sometimes and good company others, but it was something no one on the team could place.

Dillon tended to feel closer to the younger male than the rest of the team, despite his faults. Ziggy's cuter traits and more endearing qualities had found their way into the man's heart quickly, against the older ranger's wishes or better instincts. It was why he'd let the idiot boy who had tried to steal his car in the Wastes had been allowed to ride with him to Corinth, and had been allowed to become so close to his heart. Because really, he did care about Ziggy a lot, even if the younger man was insufferable some days. Sadly, this was one of those days – the ones where almost none of the team could stand him and not even his boyfriend wanted to hang around him.

"How the hell does that boy manage to screw up everything he touches?" Scott's angry voice was loud and angry enough to be heard, even upstairs and out on the roof, where Ziggy'd taken to sitting after he'd realized this was going to be one of _those _days. Maybe it was just because the others were just that loud when pissed, or because Ziggy's ears were acutely tuned to pick up everything people said about him when they thought he couldn't hear. Either was a completely plausible option, as Dr. K would put it.

Speaking of the good doctor, her voice was the one he heard filtering upstairs next, "While I understand your frustration at Ranger Green, pacing around my workspace while I am trying to complete several projects the team needs is not going to help solve anything." Ah, K. She was a sweetie at heart, but really uptight. Though her statement about him being in the Ranger Room did add some sense to Ziggy's wondering why he could hear them so clearly – there was a vent in that room that just happened to exit right next to where he tended to hide out.

What he heard next was Summer's soft voice, attempting to calm her frustrated boyfriend, "Scott, what did he do exactly?" Ziggy smiled sadly, listening to her. She could be a real saint some days, even if he knew he got on her nerves just as much as he did the others. At least Summer tried to like him, and really, that was more than he deserved from her or anyone else.

And there it was, back to Scott, "He managed to make a dent in my car and he's the one who stuck my red team shirt in with my whites when doing laundry this week." Ziggy huffed and blew his bangs out of his face a bit at that – he had accepted blame for both incidents but it still hurt knowing neither was his fault.

Sure, Ziggy'd been the one doing laundry this week, but only because he had agreed to take over Dillon's shift (the older man wasn't much of a 'housework' sort) and when he'd done that, he'd had to start taking over everyone's shifts. This meant that on Sunday, when he'd gone downstairs and found Gem and Gemma sorting clothes very awkwardly and looking like they'd rather be anywhere else, he felt obligated to tell them to head upstairs and let him handle it. Scott's had already been thrown in the wash by the time the young man arrived, so Ziggy ended it quickly to minimize the damage and told the team captain of the mistake – he really didn't think Scott needed more reason to yell at the twins, especially with how horrified and sorry they'd been when Ziggy privately explained their mistake to them.

The dent had actually also been the twins – playing around in the Garage and making small explosives, they'd ended up shooting something into the side of Scott's car. The younger man had just been coming downstairs and heading out when the red ranger found the dent in his precious vehicle. It hadn't taken Ziggy more than a quick sidelong glance to spot Gem and Gemma cowering from Scott's wrath when he inevitably figured out what they'd done. Luckily for them, the team captain still considered the pair smarter than playing around the Garage like that, so Ziggy was his first choice for likely candidate. And while it was the truth, the boy couldn't bring himself to point the blame at them.

Zigs was drawn from his thoughts by two pairs of arms wrapping awkwardly around his shoulders in a hug. He glanced between each of the twins and found himself smiling a little at their sad faces – the two really were just like children, even if he was younger than they were. "Hey, what's up?"

Gem spoke first, as he was wont to do, "We're really really sorry-"

"-that we got you in trouble." Gemma added, the pair releasing him to sit beside the younger man on the roof.

The brunette shrugged, "It's cool. You guys didn't mean to screw things up, just try not to do it again." it was a comfort, at least a bit, that he'd managed to win their favor a tiny fraction with his actions. The boy was pretty sure he could use all the friends he could get at this point, with how the day had been going.

Gemma smiled, looking out at the sky, "It's very pretty-"

"-up here. Why did you come out though?"

Leaning back against the wall his window was on, Ziggy shrugged, gesturing at the sky. "Because I wanted to watch the sunset." it was a lie, really, but somehow, he was pretty sure Gem and Gemma of all people knew about lies and faked smiles to keep yourself from going completely out of your mind. The understanding nods the pair gave before patting his shoulder and heading back inside showed he was right about that.

Later in the evening, he decided to make an appearance. By that point, Scott had cooled down to the point where he could just grumble at seeing Ziggy and would immediately leave the room. Really, if only Scott had been pissed, he could have handled staying inside for most of the day. It was the compounded rage of Scott, annoyance of Flynn and anger of Dillon that kept the boy hidden away from the others before anyone else could find new reason to hate him.

Things had started badly from the get go today. The first major incident was with Flynn in the kitchen. The man had been practicing making iced coffees and Ziggy, tired and stumbling from having no sleep the night before, had tripped and knocked over the blender, totally ruining the man's creation. He'd cleaned it up but the Scotsman had kicked him out of there pretty fast with curses and phrases he'd been too tired to distinguish. With access to the kitchen and therefore any coffee cut off, Ziggy'd had no choice but to go get dressed so he could make his way to one of the businesses in Corinth that sold fresh brewed coffee so he'd be able to make it through the day. It was on the way out to do this that Scott had been getting pissed over the dent.

Ziggy had had days like this before, where the team were just so upset with him he had to hide or else all the anger radiating from the only thing he had remotely resembling family would just eat him up. It might have been okay if he had Dillon to curl up with during it all, to know at least his boyfriend cared, but they'd had a fight the night before and the older male wasn't even acknowledging his presence today. That'd been the reason the boy was so tired in the morning – he'd been up all night crying like the wimp he was over an argument with his damn boyfriend (and Ziggy was still berating himself heavily for that).

It'd been a stupid fight and Ziggy had started it, technically. Dillon wasn't a very expressive person when it came to emotions, and he was also generally not touchy-feely. His boyfriend, on the other hand, was very expressive and thrived off of physical touches and affection. When he'd grumbled about wishing Dillon gave enough of a crap about him to maybe say he cared back, maybe tell him he loved him, he hadn't expected the man to blow up like that. The Black Ranger had it hard, with trying to search for his lost memories and lost sister, he didn't need his damn boyfriend hassling him about something they both already knew.

The alarms in the base were going off by the time Ziggy reached the kitchen to try and get some food in him. After Scott's tirade that morning, he'd just gone upstairs and gone back to 'bed' and spent the rest of the day on the roof, and hadn't really had anything to eat. But, duty came first so he closed up the fridge, so Ziggy just grabbed his ranger jacket off the hook in the main room and headed out towards where the others were getting into people's cars. He could see Dillon already driving off in the Fury and knew better than to ask either Flynn or Scott for a ride. The young man was about to see if he could drag up that damn scooter they sometimes kept around when he felt Gem and Gemma's hands on his shoulders.

"Come on-" Gem told the young man, a grin on his face as he grabbed the keys to the gold colored car Flynn had gotten him.

"-we're taking Gem's car today." Gemma finished cheerily, taking Ziggy's arm and showing him to their car. He thanked them quietly, hopping in the back and being careful not to mess up Gem's backseat – not that there was much to mess up, as the back was charred from bumpy rides with things that went boom tended to leave it very marked up inside.

The fight was against a deadly new bot that looked like a giant steampunk clock with huge white gloved fists that it punched them with. The beast was ridiculous enough, but with Kilobyte along, it really compounded the strangeness of the whole fight. In the middle, Ziggy got hit with a blast from it – partly because he wasn't able to duck in time, partly because the others were busy with Grinders, and partly because Dillon was feeling a teeny bit vindictive and didn't want to waste his invincibility shield on protecting Ziggy from a monster whose attacks did seemingly nothing to anything they hit. They didn't even blow things up!

Immediately, the boy had felt funny and wobbled a bit on his feet. The world was swimming and he could barely give Dr. K a status report on what had happened to him. What Ziggy didn't know was the only reason he wasn't showing the affects of the attack yet was because his suit partly protected him from stuff like that and the effects wouldn't be able to work till he had de-morphed, just like with the awful aches and pains that came from these fights.

The team managed to eventually push back Kilobyte and destroy this new monster. It had seemed almost too easy, avoiding its attacks and trying not to let the beast ruin too much of the city while huge. Afterward, the team was all very cheery and Flynn was even willing to let Ziggy back in the kitchen to try one of his iced coffees, that morning's trouble seemingly forgotten. Had the younger man not suddenly been called in by Dr. K to be checked for residual energies, Ziggy might have taken him up on that. And had he not been feeling so light headed from no sleep or food all day, he might have noticed how off he felt after de-morphing instead of chalking it up to exhaustion and hunger pangs. In the morning, they all realized how wrong they were about the deadliness of the Attackbot.


	2. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: **Just another lil bit of fun, written at the urging of some friends. Thanks to QueenRiley for the inspiration for this. If you want to read a wonderful story with a similar premise to this fic, you should check out her fic 'Innocence' – it's amazing.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Power Rangers or any related media or characters. The story idea is partly own but the rest isn't. Everything is copyrighted to its respective owners.

**WARNING!:** This fic will contain slash, femslash and possibly even some het (le gasp). Fic rating might change depending on what I write for later chapters, but I will warn before any mature scenes. Please keep this in mind.

**Extra Note: **Contains some spoilers for certain plot points in the series, maybe. Slight AU since it strays from canon – but most of my fics do that, ne?.

* * *

Dr. K had had Ranger Green stay in her lab overnight so she could figure out what the strange readings she was getting from the young man meant. The girl had fallen asleep in her chair, just letting the scans run themselves and planning to wake up when whatever anomaly surrounding her Ranger was through being scanned. No Venjix Attackbot did "absolutely nothing", particularly not "nothing" with that kind of energy or that left that kind of anomaly surrounding a person. However, when she first looked at her computers, they displayed something completely unbelievable – the anomaly was completely gone.

K was about to expound about her confusion over this situation to the sleeping Ranger Green when she looked up and realized why the anomaly was gone. Her scream of shock and horror was heard throughout the Garage. This was enough to rouse several members of the team from their beds, as well as wake up Ziggy.

The first one to make it to the Ranger Room was Series Red, the first thing out of Scott's mouth was whether or not Venjix was attacking and what was going on. He saw Dr. K huddled against the corner wall, face pale as if she'd just seen a ghost, and a terrified expression on her features. He had been about to ask if she saw a mouse or something and be annoyed at her shrieking so early in the morning over something ridiculous when he too saw what was on the table. The rest entered at this point and all of them looked shocked at what was on the table: a three year old boy with a mop of brown curls, and the Ranger Series Green Jacket as a blanket.

Staring wide eyed and confused was the first order of business on most people's lists. It was only Summer who had the presence of mind to head in and crouch down by the little boy to look into his sleepy brown eyes and try to quietly talk to him. The Attackbot's blast could have merely shrunken their friend, leaving his memories in tact, or it could have truly reversed his aging, leaving him an actual child.

"Hey, Ziggy? Do you remember me or who any of us are?" she asked quietly, trying to appear as non-threatening as possible in case he didn't. It was strange to see Ziggy like this, so small and chubby, with such innocence in his eyes. His eyes had always unnerved her, always seeming so sad and frightened when he let his mask slip enough for anyone to see what the boy was really feeling. To see him without that was the first obvious sign that he really might not remember them, but the quick shake of his curly haired head confirmed it.

After recovering from her panic, Dr. K returned to her seat, furiously typing and mumbling in techno babble about figuring out temporal anomalies and damn Venjix for thinking up something like this. It took her a few moments to snap back from that to realize the entire team was staring at her blankly and waiting for some explanation as to why their teammate was now a toddler and had no recollection of who they were.

K blinked up at them all, wondering just what was this they wanted, seeing as the answer was so obvious to her. "What is it, Ranger Red?" she asked, trying not to be too loud or snappish with her question – there was a child in the room and she did NOT want him to start crying.

Scott threw up his hands as if their mentor had gone mad. "What is it? Are you not in the room with us right now looking at a three year old version of one of the team? WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?" he demanded loudly, causing the tot on the examining table to let out a strangled whimper, which was quickly silenced by Summer wrapping her arms around the boy and carefully carrying him out of the room.

The young genius gave her subordinate a dirty look, "What does it look like happened, Ranger Red? The Clockbot you faced yesterday obviously had time altering powers. The only reason it didn't de-age Ziggy out of existence is because of his Series Green suit. I can try to devise an antidote but for the time being he is a child and must be dealt with as such." At that point, K stood up, heading over to Ziggy's green Ranger jacket to retrieve the morpher, which had slipped off his wrist when he shrunk. "Till Ranger Green is grown, we will have to protect him – Venjix will be seeking to take him out while he's vulnerable – well moreso than usual." The end of her speech gained a small growl from Dillon who immediately stalked out of the room, looking like he needed to be alone for a few.

Out in the main area, the Black Ranger's progress towards his car was interrupted when he heard an adorably musical giggle. Turning, he raised a brow at the couch to see Summer bouncing and cooing at the tiny Ziggy, tickling him a bit and eliciting his laughter. It would have just been another reminder that his boyfriend would be okay if he weren't such a jerk but...Dillon had NEVER heard Ziggy laugh like that. While the two were closer with each other than the rest of the team, the man knew that even he had never seen his lover truly happy – never heard him really laugh, or smile with much actual joy. Even during their happiest moments, there was always that darkness to his eyes that haunted him, and made it feel as if there was a wall between the two.

Summer glanced up from her seat and smiled, pointing to the older man. "That's Dillon, Ziggy. Do you want to go say hello?" Immediately, the child shrunk away, curling closer to the blonde's chest and hiding his face a bit. It hurt a bit to know the kid was scared, but he tried to smile just the same and went over to lean by the couch for a moment – it was what Ziggy would have done for him after all.

"You getting in touch with your maternal side, Summer?" he joked, noticing her lightly petting the boy's hair and trying to coax him out of hiding.

The woman laughed a little, "Maybe a little bit. I've never interacted with a kid this young before though." she admitted, eventually getting Ziggy to turn enough to look at Dillon cautiously from the safety of her arms, face buried in her jacket.

"Don't let Scott hear you saying that, Summer. He'll start getting panicky," Dillon smiled a little after he spoke, waving a bit at the kid, not entirely sure how to treat this situation. The tot waved back a little, which caused the older man to brighten some. Ziggy immediately hid once more the second Scott came out, however, and he retreated quite a bit more considering the man had actually been yelling the first time Ziggy really saw him, as opposed to Dillon who'd just been walking by.

With a sigh, the man came over to collapse on the couch, glancing up at the Black Ranger and raising a brow, "Don't let me hear what?" he asked, wondering just what the pair had been discussing while he was busy trying to make heads or tails of what the hell Dr. K was talking about and get her to start explaining things.

Dillon grinned a bit, "Your girlfriend's getting in touch with her inner Mommy side, Scott. You'd better run before she gets ideas." he joked, poking his friend's shoulder and getting his hand smacked away as Scott laughed. "Nah, I'm not as afraid of commitment as you are, Dillon. I can handle if Summer might want kids someday. I just know she's not ready for that." he explained, leaning over to give her a quick peck on the lips and sit back.

Ziggy looked over at them again at the sound of Scott laughing, since he sounded a lot less threatening when he wasn't yelling. Plus Summer was okay with him, so he had to be all right. Scott smiled a bit at the toddler and reached out to pat his head pat a little, "You be good there, little man. We'll get things figured out, don't you worry."

The rest of the team did their best to keep things cheery with the tot while Dr. K figured out if it was possible to cure Ziggy of his present condition. So far she had no ideas but they just had to trust in her and keep things running as smoothly as possible. They'd be caring for a child until further notice, so duties had to be divvied up, and that was enough for everyone to think about.

Summer was taking to the role of mommy like a fish to water, but the rest of the team had no idea how active Ziggy would be once he was comfortable enough in his new 'home' or how much they should tell him or what to do if anything bad happened. They'd have to do a lot of learning, and fast, particularly since the only member of the team who had any experience what-so-ever with kids outside of Q&A sessions as rangers was now a toddler.

"Do you remember anything about where you live, Ziggy?" the Yellow Ranger asked quietly, seeming to have the best luck getting answers out of the boy.

He nodded softly, "Oph'nage." the word was mumbled against his bit lip, the tot seeming to be wondering something but not sure if he should speak.

Carefully, he tugged on Summer's jacket, leaning up to whisper his little question in her ear. The woman smiled a bit and turned to the team, "Ziggy wants to know if we adopted him."

Scott and Dillon puzzled over the question, but Flynn was able to shoot an answer back right away. "Sorta, yah. We're your friends when you're bigger, Ziggy. But we're family too." the man said, seeming to have forgotten the entire coffee incident. Because really, they were all friends, weren't they? And a family of sorts. A stupid iced coffee spilling really didn't matter that much to him when it came down to it, particularly compared to reassuring the timid child-version of one of their teammates that he was home and would be okay.

"Bigger?" the boy asked quietly, cocking his head to the side and looking at them with those wide brown eyes.

After a moment, Scott nodded, resigning himself to telling the boy everything. Flynn had already started and it seemed they might as well if he was going to be safe. "Ziggy, before yesterday, you were a grownup. You're a member of a team called the Power Rangers, which is us." he explained. The tot listened to him with rapt attention – it was easy for the boy to pick out that on the status quo, Scott was in charge and you were supposed to listen to him.

"We figh' bad robots from a virus called Venjix that's tryin to hurt the people in this city." Flynn explained, talking like he was explaining comic book hero stories – which, this did sound a lot like, particularly when talking to a little kid. Ziggy's wide eyes were trained on Flynn as he spoke, the boy nodding and looking a little scared.

Dillon reached out to ruffle the boy's hair, quite like he would with Ziggy as an adult – a gentle and affectionate gesture, one of the few he gave without hesitation – before he spoke, "You used to help us with that. Till you're bigger again, though, we'll keep you safe." And that was a promise Dillon intended to keep – he still partly blamed himself for not shielding his lover from the Attackbot and he'd make sure to make it up to him. The tot looked up at him with those soft eyes and wide smile, seeming a bit comforted by the words and gesture. That looked made a knot form in the man's chest but he just shrugged it off and relaxed against the back of the couch where he'd set himself up.

"We'll take really really-"

"-good care of you Ziggy!" the twins chimed in, popping up from either side of the couch. And they all knew it was true – they'd do it together. As a family.

A sharp clearing of a throat was heard behind the couch they'd all clustered around and the team turned to look. Dr. K stood there, nervously fidgeting with the pen in her hands as she spoke, "We...we will do our best to make everything okay, Ranger Green – Ziggy. We'll do our best." she promised quietly. This drew a bright smile from the boy, and he clapped his hands. The team had a long day ahead of them, figuring out this whole 'small child' thing, but something said things would work out okay in the end.

Meanwhile, at Venjix's Palace, the somewhat disgraced Tenaya 7 stood before her boss, trying to hold her tongue as the master told them all of Kilobyte's managing to make a bot that had seriously incapacitated one of the Rangers, and how his other generals should strive to do as well. She tried not to snap back that it was just a fluke that he'd done it, particularly with how angry Venjix had been with her lately. He hadn't wanted to let his finest infiltration attackbot do anything lately, not even lead in grinders as a distraction for one of Kilobyte's damn creations. It was very, VERY frustrating, but hope did come.

"Tenaya 7 – I will give you one last shot to redeem yourself. You are the most adept of my soldiers at entering Corinth. I want you to find Ranger Green and kill him while he is weak." she was delighted with this – getting to kill the pesky (albeit amusing and kind of sweet) Ranger Green while he was vulnerable? It took a bit of the fun out of things, but after not having a mission in so long, she was glad to be able to do anything at all.

As she left the room to prepare, Venjix allowed itself a moment of pride. This would secure her loyalty to him once again. Interacting with those rangers so often had begun to bring out more and more of the human inside of her. Being sent to kill Ranger Green while he was a child – innocent and unable to defend himself – would kill whatever humanity was left in her, he was sure. Especially since she would have no time to morally ponder the decision if she didn't know beforehand in what way he was crippled as a Ranger.


	3. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: **Just another lil bit of fun, written at the urging of some friends. Thanks to QueenRiley for the inspiration for this. If you want to read a wonderful story with a similar premise to this fic, you should check out her fic 'Innocence' – it's amazing.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Power Rangers or any related media or characters. The story idea is partly own but the rest isn't. Everything is copyrighted to its respective owners.

**WARNING!:** This fic will contain slash, femslash and possibly even some het (le gasp). Fic rating might change depending on what I write for later chapters, but I will warn before any mature scenes. Please keep this in mind.

**Extra Note: **Contains some spoilers for certain plot points in the series, maybe. Slight AU since it strays from canon – but most of my fics do that, ne?.

* * *

Once daytime had fully set in, the toddler!Ziggy wanted to be much more active. He wanted to run and play a bit, and make messes and do general little kid-exploring type things. The twins, it seemed, were utterly fascinated by his presence, chasing after him to see what he did and doing their best to help out where they could. Scott had to sternly remind them not to let him get into trouble, and it wasn't to long before the trio were off, joining him in searching for things to do in the Garage.

Dillon was pretty quickly sent off to his former-boyfriend's room to box up his things and make sure it was usable for the toddler to take over. The only spare room in the Garage had been taken up by Ziggy when he'd originally come to join them, and then Gem and Gemma ended up in the room formerly meant for Ranger Green. Because of this, they really had no where else to set up a room for the boy except his own room. So Dillon had to clean it out, and then he and Scott would help rearrange it to be suited to the younger Ziggy. Summer, meanwhile, was going out to get more groceries, toys, and clothes for the tot. Because he had to stay and make sure the twins and their guest didn't wreak too much havoc, Flynn kindly let the Yellow Ranger borrow his truck, knowing it would probably handle grocery and supply shopping way better.

Dr. K took this time to hole herself up in the lab. She didn't like children, having never had to deal with one before. The girl was nervous about this new Ziggy – the old one had always been curious and chatty with her, something that had taken time but eventually did grow on her. She wasn't sure whether or not to be scared of how he'd be as a child – adult Ziggy was accident prone, loudmouthed and energetic, but this toddler version of him seemed so...timid. It reminded the genius a little bit too much of herself in a way and that meant he must be avoided at all costs.

Sadly for her, it seemed his strange curiosity about her and her work remained, despite his change in age and memories. After a while of typing at her keyboard, attempting to figure out if there was a way to reverse the Clockbot's attack, she realized there was someone standing close to her, breathing quietly. Looking down, K half jumped in surprise, seeing the little boy peaking just over the edge of her desk, watching the girl's fingers as they typed things out on the keyboards to each monitor she had up.

"Ranger Green...what are you doing in here?" she inquired, trying very hard not to yell or snap at him – if she did that, he might cry, and a crying toddler was something K dreaded. He didn't seem that scared, however, smiling up at her brightly, "Seein." he told her, before pointing up at some of the images on the screen, a few graphs and charts, "What're those?"

The Doctor stared at him before explaining the graph. The boy obviously didn't understand what most of the things she was talking about were, but he was quiet and listened with that rapt attention she'd seen him give the rest of the team earlier. There was something unnerving about how closely he was listening, how quiet and alert the boy seemed to be. Like he was soaking up every word and doing his best to understand. And yet, it was, nice. Having someone eagerly listening to her and asking questions without falling asleep at her explanations. He didn't get everything she said but it was obvious the tot appreciated her talking to him just the same.

"Why don't we have a snack while we look this over, Ranger Green?" she asked him, having noticed the boy had actually not objected to her calling him by the title. That small brights mile crept back onto his features as he nodded, K finding a smile perking up the corners of her cheeks as she leaned over to open one of the drawers in her desk.

Outside the Ranger Room, Gem and Gemma had run panicking to Flynn. They had lost Ziggy already! One second he'd been looking in the laundry bins and fallen in, them pretending to search around the room for the boy, and the next second the bin had been flipped and he was gone. The trio were about ready to panic, wondering if he'd left since the upstairs area was barred while Dillon and Scott moved things around. That was when three nervous faces slowly turned to the unlocked doors of the Ranger room – oh no.

Gem, Gemma and Flynn raced in, looking ready for a traumatized K and a room blown up by the unsuspecting Ziggy, but instead found something completely different there than expected for the second time since she'd shrieked that morning. The boy had climbed up into K's lap and she was pointing out bits on the graphs and charts, the pair nibbling on some Mr. Marshmallow snacks as they did so. And the soft smile that had taken over K's cheeks as she seriously explained some bits was worth all of the worry they'd gone through for a few moments, particularly for Gem and Gemma.

"Botherin Dr. K, are ye?" Flynn asked, a pleasant smile upon his face. It was interesting to see the pair interacting and the little genius not being cold and snappish. Ziggy was the only member of the team that close to her age or who put as much effort into trying to get to know her – besides Gem and Gemma, who had already known her.

The little genius sniffed, shaking her head, "On the contrary, Flynn. Ranger Green was being a good student and I was instructing him on the basic elementary principles of bio-fields." she explained, and it was obvious to everyone that she was trying to hide that she liked the company.

Hopping down from K's lap for a moment, he rushed over to grab Flynn's hand and take him to the Ranger wall. "K says I'm Green. What color are you?" he asked, eyes wide and happy as he looked at the suits, as if they were the most amazing things he'd ever seen.

The older male seemed more than happy to show Ziggy which one was his suit in the racks, pointing up to one of the monitors as Dr. K brought up the schematics and powers for the blue suit. Gem and Gemma, wanting to get in on the action, knelt down next and pointed to their suits and once more, K brought up the data.

They managed to keep Ziggy occupied with ranger talk till the sound of Flynn's truck could be heard pulling in out in the Garage, which signaled Summer's return and time to bring things in. Ziggy happily ran out to hug the woman soon as she was home, getting picked up into a tender embrace by the woman and shown some of the new stuff they'd got him, like toys and crayons and even a few new pieces of clothing.

Gem went up after a while to help Scott and Dillon with the rearranging of Ziggy's room, since apparently the younger man's room housed a lot of storage for the team from back when it was a guest room. Seeing as he never had much in the way of actual belongings, he'd just left it that way and there was a lot of cleaning and sorting to be done to make it habitable for someone who wasn't a scrappy twenty something who was used to dusty rooms. Gemma and Summer had to go up after a while too, since a few of their belongings were amongst the others in the former-store room, and Dr. K had to get back to work.

Had he not been with the boy in K's lab earlier in the day, Flynn would have been much more apprehensive about having toddler duty while he was making dinner. Instead, he was easily able to set up the tot at the counter with a piece of paper and a pencil to doodle, and keep an easy watch on him. It astounded everyone just how quiet and well behaved the boy was being, particularly seeing how clumsy and energetic he could be as an adult. Logic – as K had mentioned at one point – would dictate that the boy be even more accident prone and hyperactive than he was presently. Sure, he fell all over the place and was very bouncy, but not nearly as much as expected. It was like that quietness and timidity that came with the innocence also kept him reigned in for some reason.

The Scotsman smiled, having dinner in the over at last. He decided now would be as good a time as any to try and form some sort of bond with the younger boy – one he had generally avoided with the older Ziggy because of how much of a headache spending time with him seemed to be some days, and one he was vaguely wondering now if he should have tried harder to form instead of avoided.

"'ey, kiddo. What's say we make a treat for everybody since 'ey've been workin so hard, ha?" he asked, voice almost conspiratorial as he addressed the toddler. Ziggy's eyes lit up and he nodded immediately, looking ready to listen to whatever instructions Flynn gave him. "Okay, do you know your fruits? Like which one is which?" when he got a nod, the man's face lit up – this would be good. "What you gotta do is stay thar okay, laddy? When I ask for a fruit, you hand it to me." This was gonna be good.

Across town, Tenaya 7 had slowly slipped in, trying to remain as inconspicuous as possible. When she needed to be, the female could be quite adept at hiding out in Corinth, blending with the humans and all the while preparing for whatever Venjix ordered of her. Presently, she'd have to find a way to get close to the Rangers without them finding out she was nearby, so she could strike Ranger Green while he was least expecting it.

Coming downstairs after all that cleaning and arranging, the team were sweaty, tired and feeling super accomplished. Smelling food when they did get downstairs tended to be a good sign too. And was that fruit on the air as well? Flynn must be trying to get a chance to make smoothies in!

"So, how did taking care of a wily toddler all day go?" Scott asked as he entered the small kitchen and took a seat at the little table they had set up. They didn't do much in the way of 'family' meals so didn't really require a huge dining room. Scott and Summer usually sat the table, Dillon would lean on one of the breakfast bars, the twins would sit on one of them, Ziggy would eat wherever he could find room – usually on the other side of the bar Dillon would lean on – and Flynn would alternate between standing with the twins and sitting at the table.

Flynn smirked, "Pretty good. Lil bugger escaped us for a bit but we apprehended him in the act," he said, pointing his fork at Ziggy who giggled a little before looking around and jumping down from his seat at the bar and running out of the room. Assuming he was heading for the bathroom, the rest of the team ignored it.

"What was he getting up to?" Summer inquired, leaning back lightly in her chair as she sipped the smoothie Flynn and Ziggy had made for her.

Gem and Gemma looked at each other a moment before answering in unison, "Talking to Dr. K." they told the others, laughing in unison at the stunned expressions on their friends' faces.

Scott's jaw dropped, the fork in his hand clattering to the table, "Did he destroy anything?" When the twins shook their heads, that creepy double smile on their features, he was surprised, "Really now? Just hanging around talking to her?"

"Yeah, laddy was askin her all about ranger stuff-" Flynn was cut off in his explanation by the sounds coming from the other room, naming Ziggy's voice saying "Come ooooon, dinnerrrrr." and quite suddenly they saw the boy dragging Dr. K into the room, the young genius half running behind him, somewhere between reluctant and eager, a very confusing conflict to see on the young doctor's face. He pushed out a chair by himself at the bar and pointed to a spare smoothie no one else had noticed, as well as a plate decorated awkwardly as if not by Flynn, who had set up everyone else's plates.

The team exchanged a look as the little genius climbed up beside the tot and quietly started on her dinner, glancing at them all as if this was totally normal. It wasn't, obviously, as K always ate alone in her lab, but no one could really protest. Things were definitely changing with the group because of this new, younger Ziggy. And Dillon though, reaching out to ruffle the boy's hair once more, that might not be so bad for any of them. Little did they know what was lurking in wait for their "newest" team member, in the shadows of the Corinth warehouse district.


	4. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: **Just another lil bit of fun, written at the urging of some friends. Thanks to QueenRiley for the inspiration for this. If you want to read a wonderful story with a similar premise to this fic, you should check out her fic 'Innocence' – it's amazing.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Power Rangers or any related media or characters. The story idea is partly own but the rest isn't. Everything is copyrighted to its respective owners.

**WARNING!:** This fic will contain slash, femslash and possibly even some het (le gasp). Fic rating might change depending on what I write for later chapters, but I will warn before any mature scenes. Please keep this in mind.

**Extra Note: **Contains some spoilers for certain plot points in the series, maybe. Slight AU since it strays from canon – but most of my fics do that, ne?.

* * *

Watching the team fall into the more familial relationship was interesting, particularly for Dillon who had no recollection of what it was like to really even have a family. Little Ziggy seemed to know what roles everyone filled as a team instinctually and had managed to twist it a bit, treating them instead as family roles. Scott was the father figure – the leader, the head of the house, the one to be obeyed above all others. Summer was mother, she was comforting and loving and could get Scott to change his mind, but was subordinate to him just the same. The others were like siblings to talk and play with. And Dr. K was their mentor-teacher, who taught them all sorts of stuff and helped the team out.

The first time Venjix chose to attack after Ziggy had been "changed" as they were terming it, not even a week had passed. The boy had been terrified of the loud noises and red flashing lights that came with the alarms that alerted the team to the shield breach. He immediately ran to cling to Summer but she was busy running around to get ready to go and he was so scared, standing alone in the room and wondering what was happening as tears welled in his eyes. In the next moment, Dillon had lifted him up and carried the whimpering tot into the Ranger Room.

"We have to go, so you need to stay here with Dr. K till we get back." he told the boy, automatically feeling protective of him as a child just as he had when Ziggy was an adult. He had just carefully placed the nervous tot on K's examining table as Scott and Summer came in to give a few last instructions and cuddles. Summer gave the boy the gentle hug and kiss he had wanted to feel less scared and Scott gave a few orders, "You need to be quiet and listen to everything Dr. K tells you, okay Ziggy? She's got to help us so don't get in her way too much."

Just as he had on his first day, Ziggy wandered over to stand by Dr. K, watching the screen as the team traveled towards the red dot on the map and another screen showed them all transforming and their power levels. He tried not to cling to the girl or ask too many questions as he watched the fight, not wanting to get in the way. Little brown eyes followed every button she pushed with rapt attention, watching how she initiated certain sequences and gave the rangers commands.

The team was struggling but pulling through against the grinders and this new bot. As Dr. K gave instructions, quick and direct over the com line, the little boy hung on the back of her chair, watching with wild eyes. When they had defeated the bot's giant form with their Megazords, she was able to breath a sigh of relief and motioned Ziggy over, pressing the button on her com to let both her and Ziggy say "Good Job Rangers", causing the team to laugh a bit on their end.

As the team signaled they were heading back, the tot couldn't contain his excitement anymore and grabbed K's hand, dragging her out towards the front of the building so he could watch for the Rangers and give hugs when they came in. During his short few days with them, the tot had already realized where to stand so he wouldn't get hit when anyone came in or parked. However, what he didn't know was of the very pretty Attackbot who popped up behind him as K was slowly jogging out to join him. The little genius stared in horror as Tenaya 7 clapped one hand over Ziggy's mouth and lifted him up with the other, grinning as she stated "I'll be taking this, thanks" and vanished, running as fast as possible on her robotic legs to get out of there before the Rangers could return from the other side of town.

When the team returned, they were triumphant and smiling, expecting to be greeted by a smiling tot and have a small victory dinner. What they found on reaching the Garage however was K halfway out the door and nearly getting herself run over by Dillon as he pulled to a quick stop on seeing her out in the bright sunlight, looking around frantically.

The team pulled in as fast as they could, rallying together to figure out what she was talking about – away from her computer, it was harder to communicate instantly with the team. "She – she took Ziggy." K said, out of breath after trying to run after the Attackbot and nearly getting hit by the Fury, "Tenaya 7 grabbed him just as we were coming out to greet you all."

Immediately, the group was heading back to their cars, Dillon throwing open the door on his. "Get in." he commanded the nervous looking genius and against her better judgment she did. K was not the search the city in Dillon's car type of person. She was the sit in a secluded computer room and follow colored blips on a map sort. The recent exposure to childlike behaviors and emotions was starting to affect her decision making skills and K very much wondered if this little Ziggy had driven her completely out of her mind as she pulled her legs up under her so as not to get dirty in the mess that was the inside of Ranger Black's car.

"Did you see which way she was headed?" Dillon asked her, and rolled his eyes at her response. "Negative, Ranger Black. She took off too fast and made a jump so that the sun would keep me from seeing her trajectory." Which meant they were going to have to search the city.

At a deserted park far from where the rest of the team had been, Tenaya 7 was slowly walking around a little boy who stood nervously on the wood chips before her. Her visor was down to obscure her face and make her look more cold and robotic, and the blaster on her hand was pointed at the tot. She'd brought him to what seemed like the perfect place to take – and kill, of course – the now young Green Ranger. And yet, as she circled the boy, who looked up at her with a nervous pout, she could barely bring herself to speak, let alone fire. Why was this so damn difficult? Had she not sworn she would only allow herself to leave the city when the job was done, or else die trying because Venjix didn't want her back otherwise, the woman would have left to contemplate what error was causing her to behave like this.

Ziggy, for his part, was trying to remain calm. He didn't really completely understand what was going on, watching the funny lady circle him. His first instinct was that she was scary after she'd grabbed him, but then the strange person had taken him to a park and wasn't hurting him, so that was nice right? The robotic attachment to her hand didn't look like the few blasters he'd seen, thinking it seemed more like one of K's funny scanners. As for the visor, it seemed more like a very large pair of sunglasses or the face shield on Summer's motorcycle helmet, neither of which were very scary.

"Miss Lady is quiet." he commented after a bit before cocking his head to the side and squinting, "We stop turning now peas? M'Dizzy." The tot had been slowly turning to watch the funny lady as she circled him and he wasn't exactly sure what the point of this game was but it was dizzying.

Tenaya frowned, stopping her circle to point a tad more firmly at the boy, "I am not 'Miss Lady' – I am Tenaya 7, Human Infiltration Attackbot." she informed the ignorant child, trying to use his ignorance of her place and position to become angry enough to shoot.

Instead of being intimidated, Ziggy smiled, brown eyes still squinting under his too long hair as he nodded a bit, "Miss 'Aya Seven." he said before waving a bit, "M'Ziggy, but K says I'm Ranger Green." The android's hand shook as she tried not to give into that strange warmth that filled her stomach at that sweet little smile and the affection used to say her name. No one was affectionate with Tenaya 7, no one smiled at her like that. She was the enemy of all here in Corinth! Didn't he know that?

Dillon and K eventually made it to that end of town, driving along, looking and listening for any sign that Tenaya was still in the city or that Ziggy might not be dead yet. As they passed the park area, the man's cybernetics allowed him to pick up on a faint and familiar whistle in the distance. Immediately he pulled over, looking wild eyed with worry.

"Ranger Black, what is it?" K asked before her eyes widened, hearing the song. The pair leaped from the cary, dashing towards the sound of the noise, both hoping they weren't too late. Tenaya tended to whistle the only song she knew, the Farmer in the Dell, whenever she was stalking prey. That usually either meant she was stalking them or they had come upon her stalking the young Ziggy because he had run from her.

The pair neared the swings and were surprised to see Tenaya not walking around with her blaster out as she whistled, but sitting on one of the children's swings, pushing herself back and forth a bit with her feet. They slowly made their way towards the front of her and stared at the sight before them.

Tenaya's visor was on the ground near her feet and Ziggy was curled in her lap, fast asleep as the girl whistled the song, tenderly petting his curls and swinging to lightly rock him. Her head was bowed as if ashamed and confused and she held onto the tot like he was her last hope at life. The shade of the trees made it harder to see, but K and Dillon were pretty sure they spotted tear tracks on her cheeks.

When they approached, Tenaya looked up at them, eyes sad as she regarded the pair. Her expression became stony, stopping the tune and her swinging as the pair showed up. "I couldn't do it." she said finally, shrugging a little, "Venjix wanted me to take out Ranger Green while he was weak. He never said in what way." the comment was soft as she trailed her fingers over the tot's hair again. The boy seemed content to stay with her and Dillon breathed a sigh of relief at that.

"You'll need to be taking him back now, won't you?" Tenaya asked quietly, looking between K and Dillon as if unsure. Instead of looking confident or cocky, the Attackbot looked quite like a dear caught in the headlights. She was scared, she was unsure and it was unsettling. "I'm sorry for taking him."

The man crouched down beside her, reaching out to lightly pet the boy's hair as well. Ziggy woke at the touch and looked up, smiling sleepily at them. "Oh hii..." he yawned a bit speaking, "Miss Seven was 'istlin' a song for me. Was pretty." he told them and seemed content to sit up and rest against her chest a bit. The Attackbot stiffened at that for a moment before realizing she'd instinctively wrapped her arms around the toddler in a protective manner when he did that. Something was very wrong with her and she wasn't quite sure what.

"We're gonna have to go home now, Ziggy. Everyone's worried." Dillon explained. He was going to have to contact the other rangers to call off the search in a minute.

The boy nodded a bit before looking up at Tenaya and then back at Dillon, "Miss Seven come too?" at that, Dillon and K looked taken-aback. How were you supposed to tell a toddler that the nice lady whose lap he was sitting in, who'd just been singing a song for him and had taken him to a park, was an evil robot? Ziggy answered that question on his own, "Bad guy won't let her go home."

K's eyes furrowed, "Excuse me?" she inquired, "what do you mean, Ziggy?"

The ex-attackbot rolled her eyes and pat Ziggy's head a bit, "I told him why I was here – to kill him. That Venjix had sent me. I'm not supposed to return until I've completed the job. He wants me to either destroy Ranger Green or die trying." she explained.

Maybe it was because of how he'd just seen her crying and how she looked about as confused as he felt at this whole situation that nudged the protective part of Dillon into action. "Yes, Miss Seven can come back with us. We'll have to explain it to the others but she can." he said with a long sigh. K and Tenaya both looked shocked and surprised but Ziggy cheered a little and hugged his new friend.

As the others got into the car, Dillon called up the others to. "Guys, we found Ziggy, but we'll be bringing an unexpected guest home with us." he explained, looking nervously at where Tenaya was carefully climbing into the back seat with Ziggy to hold him while they rode since there wasn't a car seat for him.

"What do you mean, 'unexpected guest'?" Scott asked, tone already wary.

"Ziggy made a new friend." Dillon replied with a smile, shutting off the communicator and getting into the car. Trust Scott being wary to make him sure of his decisions. If Dillon wasn't sure of something like that, he could always be thankful that his desire to tick off the team leader and be a bit obnoxious would help him choose.

Tenaya smirked from her position in the back seat, "Why do I think turning him into a toddler has actually given Ziggy more power instead of weakening him?" she inquired with a friendly pat to the boy's head when he looked up at her.

Pulling her legs in tight once more, K looked back at them, "I believe your hypothesis is correct. Ranger Green does seem to have more influence as a child than he ever had as an adult." And as Tenaya attempted to make conversation with the young genius, she couldn't help but notice how nice her legs were when she pulled them up to escape the mess by the foot of her chair, and how her skirt fell up just high enough to be intriguing. But those weren't the thoughts for an ex-Venjix Infiltration Attackbot to be having, particularly while playing carseat to a toddler and getting ready to face her enemies as a stray taken in on the whim of that toddler. Not that she didn't file those thoughts away for later of course, but now was not the time to think about it.


	5. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: **Just another lil bit of fun, written at the urging of some friends. Thanks to QueenRiley for the inspiration for this. If you want to read a wonderful story with a similar premise to this fic, you should check out her fic 'Innocence' – it's amazing.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Power Rangers or any related media or characters. The story idea is partly own but the rest isn't. Everything is copyrighted to its respective owners.

**WARNING!:** This fic will contain slash, femslash and possibly even some het (le gasp). Fic rating might change depending on what I write for later chapters, but I will warn before any mature scenes. Please keep this in mind.

**Extra Note: **Contains some spoilers for certain plot points in the series, maybe. Slight AU since it strays from canon – but most of my fics do that, ne?.

* * *

Arriving back at the Garage, they found the rest of the team clustered together and waiting for them. Summer looked worried, Scott looked like he had a bad feeling about this, and Flynn was busy trying to keep the twins from practically tackling the car to find their playmate and meet their new 'guest'. When K hopped out and Dillon moved to help Tenaya out of the backseat, five jaws dropped. It seemed that since he'd been changed, Ziggy was just full of surprises, and being snuggled up with a nervous looking Tenaya 7 was just another thing added to that list.

As soon as they were out of the car, K headed back to the safety of her nice clean lab, Tenaya following her. Summer chased after for a moment to quickly hug Ziggy and tell him she'd been very worried, but let him go into the lab with Tenaya after that. They all knew he disliked loud noises, particularly yelling, and Scott was about to be doing a bunch of that. So staying out of the way and waiting with his new friend were a better idea.

"What makes you think you can just bring her here, Dillon?" Scott snapped once he'd finally found his voice, heading over to get right in the Black Ranger's face, "She's our enemy and you're just going to pretend that didn't happen because she's being nice to Ziggy for now?"

Looking almost as furious as Scott but a tad more worried, Flynn joined his teammate in interrogating their rather rogue companion, "You do remember _she's_ the one who nabbed him, righ'?"

Dillon looked about ready to punch them for this, not liking what the other men were implying, "You weren't there when we found them – you didn't see how she was acting. She was terrified and crying over what she'd almost done."

Ranger Red scoffed at that, "So you're just gonna trust her now, no questions asked, because you saw her crying?" he demanded.

"No, I'm not trusting her but we're the only place she's got right now. Venjix's through with her – he said to kill Ziggy or die trying. If he finds she couldn't do it, he'll send someone after her." Dillon's fists were clenching as he spoke, trying not to want to kick his friend's ass for legitimate concerns.

Summer took this time to step between the pair, something she did often because she generally didn't want to see her boyfriend beaten to a bloody pulp when he pushed things too far with Dillon. Scott grumbled a bit but backed off. "Fine, but you've gotta keep her from causing any trouble."

Flynn stared after the group as they headed for the Ranger Room, "But...where is she gonna sleep? We've got no where to put her."

"Negative, Ranger Blue." his question was answered almost as soon as he entered the lab to find K wandering around Tenaya and scanning her for something. "While she is with us, Miss Seven will be sharing my quarters."

Scott stared at her, looking like he was going to tear his precious hair out, "Has everyone just gone completely insane? She's a ROBOT, Dr. K." Tenaya winced a bit at his words, but Ziggy shook his head from his position in K's computer chair. "Nu-uh!"

"What do you mean, nu-uh, Ziggy?" Summer asked, walking over to pick the boy up for another hug.

K answered this as well, continuing to scan their newest arrival, "Take a look at the scans for yourself," she said, pointing up at one of the monitors where Tenaya's X-rays could be easily viewed – and they looked remarkably similar to another member on the team's.

They all stared, not as surprised by this but still a little amazed. Flynn finally spoke up, "So...she's another hybrid? Like Dillon?" The ex-Attackbot shifted uncomfortably at the revelation – she herself had only just found out about being a human, and now everyone else was and it was really not something she was completely ready to deal with. Particularly since it implied Venjix had been lying to her all of this time and while that wasn't surprising, it was painful.

After all of the poking, prodding and questions, it was nice when things finally settled down for the team. With everyone around to help out, it was no wonder Ziggy was such a happy-go-lucky kid. There were activities to do with each Ranger, and a happy little family arrangement with each member. And yet, sometimes it nagged at the others that he was just so different from his older self.

"Hey Ziggy?" Summer found herself asking one day as she kneeled on the floor with the boy, coloring on the coffee table and just talking about things. On the couch, Scott was stretched out and watching the pair with that slightly fond smile he got sometimes that seemed almost in disbelief that Summer was his girlfriend.

The tot looked up at her questioning tone, eyes wide as he waiting for her to ask him whatever it was – whenever grownups got that tone, it tended to be followed with 'important' and 'serious' questions that he needed to pay attention to. "Do you remember anything about the orphanage?" she asked quietly.

He blinked at her – what a strange question. Why wouldn't he remember it? That had been his home since birth and when you're living in a place like that, no matter how small, you remember the important parts of it. "Yeah. You gotta be quiet 'n' always listen to Nurse or you get in trouble. 'N' stay away from the big kids, they're mean." he said proudly, as if remembering these rules and being able to follow them was a huge accomplishment in his book, which it kind of was. A lot of kids where he'd come from had had trouble with these, particularly the listening part.

Summer and Scott exchanged a small look before the man shrugged and pat Ziggy's shoulder. "Good rules to remember kid. Keeps you out of trouble." he said, smiling down at the boy before going back to relaxing.

K had been trying to figure out a way to cure Ziggy for two weeks after his change. Gem and Gemma would help her when they could, and Tenaya even tried to help after they'd joined, but there didn't seem to be a way to reverse the Attackbot's powers since they had been so experimental. Luckily for them, that experimental nature of the bot's attack meant it did start wearing off eventually, but not as they'd hoped.

Halfway through his third week as a child with them, Ziggy started to feel funny. He complained of it to Summer, seeing as she was Mommy so to speak and would know what to do. She had worriedly tried to check if the boy was coming down with something but...nothing. The toddler seemed to be in perfect health. Because she couldn't find something wrong with him, the blonde escorted him quickly to K's lab, wondering if maybe something was going wrong with the thing that had changed him.

Seated on the examining table, Ziggy felt strange, like the world was spinning around him. He could hear K throwing around words like 'unstable' and 'attempting to reconfigure' but it was getting hard to understand anything. Lying against the table, Ziggy closed his eyes and while everyone was so distracted, decided he had the time to take a nap. Summer, K and Tenaya turned around from their discussion in time to see the sleeping toddler start to glow completely green, the mass of colored light coming from his body too much to keep their eyes open and watch. When they were able to look again, he'd changed.

On the table now was a boy of about six or seven and he was starting to wonder if people always stared at you in a shocked and confused manner when you woke up from a nap on Dr. K's examining table. "Wotswrong?" he mumbled, scratching his head and brushing those too-long bangs from his face. Summer was looking confused, Tenaya amused – at least someone was – and K was typing furiously on her keyboard.

Kneeling before the boy, Summer spoke softly, and he noticed he had to look down at her a lot farther when she crouched like this. It was also starting to make a lot more sense. "Do you remember anything Ziggy?" she asked what seemed a lot like one of her favorite questions.

"Yeah. You're Summer. That's K. And that's Miss Seven." he said, pointing to each of them in turn. He hadn't forgotten again. Ziggy was smart afterall! Dr. K said he was bright when she taught him and now he felt even smarter so he could figure out what was wrong.

Summer nodded a bit, smiling in relief a bit as he was able to tell her. "And do you know how old you are?" she asked. Ziggy had called Tenaya 'Miss Seven' which implied he at least remembered his time as a toddler.

This took a bit more consideration before he answered, "Six." and Ziggy smiled, knowing it was true. He had grown a bit during his nap and seemed to be stronger and faster, able to understand things a lot better than he'd been able to before, but he was still the little kid Ziggy that had been raised in an orphanage and was adopted by the Power Rangers, not the Ziggy who'd grown up and accidentally joined the team.

Tenaya took this moment to walk over and ruffle his hair, sort of like how Dillon did. "We were worried about you, kiddo. Most people don't take naps, glow green and then wake up bigger." she informed him with a sly smile. If he still remembered her as Miss Aya Seven, then she didn't have to worry about explaining things to him or him having to learn to trust her just yet. The boy already did.

Ziggy, being the kind of little kid he was, grinned brightly at his two caretakers. "Can I go now? I wanna show the others how big I am now!" and Summer laughed, moving out of the way as he hopped down and dashed out of the room.

Flynn was the easiest to find, leaning into his truck and working on something or another. Ziggy ran over towards the blue truck and bounced a bit on the toes of his sneakers while he greeted his 'big brother', "Hey Flynn! Guess what!"

The older male didn't look up from his work just yet, idly thinking K was getting to the boy – he was starting to sound more mature already. In another few weeks he'd probably sound like a computer. "What can I do for you lad?" he asked, sitting up after a moment and staring in shock at his now bigger companion.

"I grew!" Ziggy said proudly, "Okay, I'll let you be now, bye! I'm goin to find Gem and Gemma!" he called, and before Flynn could say much, the boy was off to find his playmates. Huh. Well, it'd been different but he seemed happy so that couldn't be too bad, right?

The twins were in the kitchen, setting up the makings for blasting putty. Scott had tried to tell them Ziggy was too young to teach things like that but they knew the boy was smart and he'd love getting to make things with them!

"Gem! Gemma! I got bigger!" Ziggy called happily, running to see them but slowing down a good deal when he got near. He may not know how to make explosives himself yet, but the tot had learned pretty fast that things the duo made often went boom and he should be careful running around those things.

The two exchanged a surprised look for a second at seeing him older, before a sly smile spread over their faces. Leaning forward over the table to look down at him, they both smiled. "Hey Ziggy do-" "-you want to help us make something?" they asked and the grin on his face was the only one in the place that could rival theirs when he said yes. After all, Scott had said he was too young before to learn about blasting putty. But now he was older! So it was okay.

Scott was a bit confused – he hadn't seen Ziggy all day. The boy usually at least came to give him a hug in the mornings and he hadn't seen the tot. He found Summer reading a magazine on the couch and decided to inquire, feeling a bit off without seeing the tot. "Hey Summer, have you seen Ziggy? I haven't see him all day."

The blonde blinked up at her boyfriend, "What, he didn't come see you? Ziggy wasn't feeling too good this morning so I took him to see Dr. K and he grew while we were there. He ran off to show everyone how much bigger he'd gotten and I haven't seen him since."

Scott's eyes widened in horror. Did she say he'd gotten bigger? "Oh no. I know where he is." he said before dashing off towards the twins' work area. "Ziggy? Gem? Gemma?"

At the table he saw the three wearing labcoats and goggles – both of which were oversized on the little boy – as they worked on what was unmistakably explosives. Looking up, they grinned and Gem started speaking, "Oh hi Scott we-"

"-were just working on making-"

"-some blasting stuff!" Ziggy finished with a cheer, and the twins high-fived him as Scott smacked his face into his palm. This was just ridiculous.

"Whatever you three. Just don't blow your eyebrows off. Or any of your limbs." he said, waving a hand and heading over to find an aspirin. Instead, by the medicine cabinet, he found Dillon bandaging a small cut he'd got on his arm while working on his car. The latter raised a brow at his friend, smirking a bit. "You look like you've just seen a ghost." he joked.

Scott rolled his eyes, grabbing the aspirin from the chest, "Worse. I saw Gem and Gemma teaching a six year old Ziggy to make explosives." he said, gulping down one of the little pills and leaning against the counter by Dillon as the other man looked surprised.

"He's six now? When'd that happen?" Dillon found himself asking, wondering if K had found a cure or something and didn't tell them about it. He was pretty sure he'd like to know if he might be getting his boyfriend back at some point, thank you very much.

The Red Ranger shrugged, "Summer said this morning. She went to K's lab and he grew while they were there. He was apparently going around to show people but got distracted."

Dillon found himself chuckling at that – typical Ziggy. He might be a tad less nervous now and was being taught more, but he was still the same wide eyed goofball Dillon had fallen in love with. Which is probably why it didn't hurt as much to not be able to have him as a lover – seeing him young and happy like this was at least nice. If a bit dissatisfying. "We'll have to show him some cool stuff at some point too so he doesn't get to thinking Gem and Gemma are the only ones in the Garage who know how to do anything fun." he said, fist bumping a bit with Scott before going to watch the explosive making for himself – this sounded like it was going to be funny.


	6. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: **Just another lil bit of fun, written at the urging of some friends. Thanks to QueenRiley for the inspiration for this. If you want to read a wonderful story with a similar premise to this fic, you should check out her fic 'Innocence' – it's amazing.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Power Rangers or any related media or characters. The story idea is partly own but the rest isn't. Everything is copyrighted to its respective owners.

**WARNING!:** This fic will contain slash, femslash and possibly even some het (le gasp). Fic rating might change depending on what I write for later chapters, but I will warn before any mature scenes. Please keep this in mind.

**Extra Note: **Contains some spoilers for certain plot points in the series, maybe. Slight AU since it strays from canon – but most of my fics do that, ne?

* * *

The older Ziggy, while having more understanding, also seemed to have more energy. He could roughhouse with Flynn for hours, play a bit of basketball with Scott, run errands with Summer and still have energy to help Dr. K and the twins out with their projects. Dillon didn't get as much time with his old best friend as he'd like, but seeing the boy laughing and happy, running around with the others, and he got a few moments with the boy that made everything worthwhile. Moments where the man would be alone, brooding or just feeling off – something most of the others couldn't always distinguish from his usual thoughtful moods – and Ziggy'd just climb into the passenger seat of the Fury next to him or poke him till he smiled, telling those bad jokes only a child or Flynn could like.

Times like those always reminded Dillon of why he'd been so close to Ziggy, even before they were dating. The other male had managed to force his way into the older man's hardened heart and stay there. Seeing it finally able to affect the others who had dragged their feet about getting close to the boy was actually kind of gratifying. He had always thought Ziggy deserved more love and affection than the other got – more than Dillon could give him, particularly with how he was. It was a sad reminder of the fight they'd had before Ziggy's change, but he didn't get to dwell on it long as the child next to him began to poke his cheek.

"Stoppit." the boy commanded, pouting a bit as he sat crosslegged on the seat, his brown hair looking neat for a change – Summer's mothering him included doing things like brushing the boy's hair and making sure he was dressed neatly.

Dillon raised a brow but he smiled just the same, "Stop what?" he said, looking at the kid, sitting there in his sock feet and jeans and a green t-shirt, looking like he wasn't concerned at all about being in the garage or the mess on the floor, which included several visible charges for blowing up grinders. Then again, Ziggy was getting a lot more comfortable with explosives and things that went boom than most six-year-olds.

Ziggy rolled his eyes – a gesture that was so obviously learned from Tenaya (Dillon himself denied teaching the child to do that) that it was funny. "You're pouting." he said, crossing his arms over his chest and demonstrating a pout. "Summer says you're brooding but you're poutin."

The man chuckled at this, reaching out to ruffle the boy's hair. Ziggy reached up to pushed it back into place a little afterwards, mumbling something about Mama would object – but caught himself, saying Summer. Dillon's chuckle grew louder at that, "Don't let her hear you calling her Mama. It might give her ideas." he joked. "So what're you doing in my car, besides bothering me and giving orders? Did you escape the devilish clutches of Super Flynn?"

Ziggy shook his head, leaning back against the door. "Naw, I was doing lessons with K. But she has to check on 'Aya's machiney bits so I came out to see who was around." the boy just seemed so comfortable talking to him like this, it was hard to imagine that he really didn't remember them being best friends. Maybe that was just how Ziggy acted anyway, regardless of how he'd met someone like Dillon. "Why were you poutin? What's that?" the questions were quicker, like the boy wasn't fond of the subject of himself. They'd noticed pretty fast that Ziggy really didn't want to talk about himself unless he had to or had accomplished something, a trait the old Ziggy had seemingly grown out of.

The man's attention returned to the old pocketwatch in his hands. He hadn't opened it or really thought much on his sister recently, bad as that sounded. There'd been other things to worry about, like keeping Ziggy and Tenaya safe from Venjix attacks, and making sure everyone settled in. Now he'd finally gotten a chance to reminisce again and Ziggy'd come out to investigate. Smiling some, he turned the object over towards the tot to let him look at it. "It's my pocketwatch. I don't remember anything about my life before I came here, and that's all I've got to help me find my sister."

Ziggy had at least been told about Dillon's sister, so he was careful to turn over the object with great reverence. Carefully, the man pulled the chains from his neck that held the two keys to it. Turning his own in it, he made the watch play the lullaby, letting the boy beside him listen to it. The child seemed fascinated with how it played music before noticing the other chain his friend held. "What's that one?"

He glanced down at the chain in his hand before handing it over to Ziggy. "It's my sister's key. I can't make it work." the older male explained, watching as the boy carefully took out Dillon's key and replaced it with his sister's, trying to turn the watch and make it play a song but unable to just as much as he had been. "Oh." was all Ziggy could say before handing it back.

Dillon leaned against the door of the car for a moment before reaching out to poke Ziggy's shoulder, "Go grab your shoes and let Summer know we're going out. Ask her if we should pick anything up while we're out." and like a shot the boy was off, and to Dillon's amusement, just climbed out of the open window in one quick motion rather than bothering to open the heavily rusted door. Somehow he was pretty sure that while it was lonely not having Ziggy as a boyfriend anymore, having the child around wouldn't be so bad at all.

A few nights later, the man woke to a quiet motion in his room. His eyes slit open and had he not been able to see the familiar mop of brown hair by his bed, he might have freaked out a bit. Ziggy was seated on the side of Dillon's bed, holding his pocketwatch and his sister's key, trying to make them work. Reaching out carefully, he ruffled the child's hair. "It's okay if you can't do it. We'll figure it out eventually." he assured Ziggy with more confidence than he was sure he had, smiling some at how startled the child was.

"Sorry for sneakin in here." the boy apologized and Dillon waved it off. "Want me to play the song for you?" he asked and held out an arm for the Ziggy to lay with him and listen to the song.

It was rare that the brown haired child ever slept the whole night in his own room, often ending up curled with Summer or falling asleep wherever he'd been waiting for one of the team. Several times, if Flynn was working late on a repair or Dillon was brooding in his car, Ziggy'd go stay with them so they wouldn't be alone. Whoever found him first would usually drop him off in his own room before they went to bed or about their activities for the day. Dr. K had even commented it seemed like Ziggy didn't want to let any of his new 'family' ever be truly alone, so he'd stay nearby just to make sure they knew they were loved.

Because of this, it was no surprise for the blonde to poke her head into his room in the morning and find him not there. When she noticed the door to Dillon's room a bit ajar, she looked in and smiled, seeing the man fast asleep with Ziggy's head on his shoulder, the watch in the little boy's hands. Carefully, she reached out to pick him up, pulling the child to her chest gently. What she didn't notice was that he was still holding the chains for both keys and the watch in his small grasp when she put him to bed.

All that day, the team was busy. Venjix was due to attack any day now and they needed to be briefed on new attack formations and weapons that K had been working on. Since it was obvious Ziggy would eventually just grow back to adulthood – at least that was the theory – she and Tenaya had taken time off to work on some new weapons for the team. Because of all this preparation, they didn't completely notice that Ziggy never came down to breakfast or seemed distracted for most of the morning.

It was mid-afternoon when the was finally seen, tearing downstairs with wide eyes and a triumphant look on his face. Tenaya was amused when she saw him, catching the boy in a quick hug. "Hey there, where are you going so fast?" she inquired, bouncing him a bit. The rest of the team were out on a training run, but she had hung back in case there was trouble or K and Ziggy needed something. Since the ex-attackbot wasn't an official member of the team anyway, she didn't really mind being left out.

"I'm lookin for Dillon!" he said proudly, eyes wild, "I made it play!"

The woman looked at him curiously, carrying Ziggy back towards K's lab with her, "Ranger Black's not here right now – everyone left for training." she told the boy, setting him down inside the room, "But if it's important enough, maybe K can tell him when he gets a minute."

Looking up from her work, the young genius blinked, "Tell who what, Miss Seven?" the title was affectionate, for the most part, the pair growing to be a bit closer after sharing a room and working together for a while.

"Ziggy says he has something to tell Ranger Black." she explained, Ziggy nodding firmly as he ran up to the desk.

"I made it play! It plays her song!" he said pointing frantically to Tenaya and looking wide eyed with glee at K who stared at him. "Made what play whose song, Ranger Green? You need to be more specific."

The boy stared at them in bewilderment for a time before puffing up a bit and pulling Dillon's pocketwatch from his pocket. K's eyes widened, "Ranger Green! That isn't yours! That item means a lot to Ranger Black and had you lost or broken it, he would have been very upset." she scolded.

Ziggy shook his head, "No no, K! He was letting me listen to it last night, I still had it when I woke up so I tried to make the keys work cause he wants to find his sister! I found a way to make her key work and made it play her song!" he explained, pulling from his other pocket the two chains, presently joined because of the keys attached to them being put together. "Listen!" immediately, he started to turn it and let them hear as the Farmer in the Dell began to slowly play.

Tenaya and K both froze, suddenly realizing what he meant when he kept saying 'her' song. Ziggy wasn't talking about Dillon's sister's song as if it was her's because of her key opening it – he meant her song as in the one Tenaya always whistled for him. And if his watch played her song...that meant only one thing.

Carefully, the little genius cleared her throat and pressed a button on her computer to speak to the team. "Ranger Black, when you return to base, we have something very important to discuss with you." she stated as calmly as possible before standing up. Tenaya was shaking a bit and it didn't take more than a moment for the woman to run back to their room, crying into her hands as memories flooded her. "Ranger Green, please stay here and watch out for trouble. Come and get me if the Rangers need any help." K commanded the boy before following.

Ziggy stared for a few before closing up the pocketwatch and taking a seat at K's desk. There was a map up of the area in the wastes where the team was training on one screen, bio-signals for all of the team with their current statuses on another, and a small camera visual of them training on a third. The boy watched this one with animation, quietly clapping and cheering for them, leaving the com alone since they were busy. However, when he noticed the gleaming off of several grinders sneaking around in the background, as well as an attackbot heading close, he pressed it.

"Rangers! There's bots and grinders heading for you! Watch out!" he said quickly, ignoring the startled sounds from the team at hearing him over the com. "They're behind you, in the shrubs." he said, instead of answering Scott's question of why he was on the com. Thankfully, the team stopped asking when they looked where he told them and saw the grinders trying to sneak up.

"Thanks Ziggy." Summer's voice was soft and friendly as the whole group assembled to fight.

The child watched with rapt interest as the team kicked Grinder ass. But when the Attackbot and an ugly robot with a funny bump on his head and a smarmy voice joined the fighting, the team had to back off and morph. He cheered a bit, watching them taking on the pair and spinning a bit from side to side in K's chair.

After a good bit of fighting and blasting, they managed to blast the Attackbot to kingdom come. That was when the annoying ugly robot started talking about beginning downloads and rushed off. What was it K usually did when they started talking about that? Oh right, pushed those buttons to send the fancy cars. Ziggy leaned forward and tapped the keys to send the team their Zords, and then pushing more buttons when they started asking about configurations. K had never let him try this before but Ziggy could remember it! Just what she pushed, just what the team said to tell her they needed stuff, he had learned it after only a few weeks of watching.

The team was cheering and triumphant, ready to come back in from their training and fighting by the time K returned. Tenaya looked decidedly less tearful and the young doctor looked decidedly more rumpled than when they'd gone back, but everything was fine. She blinked at the screen, "Are they finished their training exercises?" the girl asked, looking at Ziggy in surprise. Had they really been back there that long? Well, time did fly when she spent time with Tenaya.

"Mhm. They're comin home. Can I tell Dillon or do you wanna?" he offered, eyes wide with excitement as he held out the watch to the older females. It was her memory, her song and her family – even if the tot was excited to tell, he knew it meant a lot to Tenaya and would let her if she wanted to. Finally, she reached out to take the watch and the keys. "You can tell him you found something – I'll tell him what you found. Deal?" when Ziggy nodded, she grinned, heading out with him and K to greet the team on their way back in.

The boy rushed to his waiting spot and cheered happily as the team came inside. Flynn was first, pulling in and hopping out to give Ziggy a big hug and tell him about their victory. "We beat that new bot like it was nothin!" he cheered.

K and Tenaya blinked, walking over in surprise as Scott and Summer pulled in. "New bot?" the littler woman inquired, looking at the Blue Ranger in confusion. "When did you fight a new Attackbot?" she inquired.

Scott, Summer and Flynn looked at K like she'd gone crazy just as the twins came over to see what was going on. "The Attackbot that came with a bunch of grinders to interrupt our training session? You let Ziggy get on the com and warn us about them, remember?" Scott asked, wondering just what their mentor was thinking. Was this supposed to be a joke?

The young genius blinked, "I don't remember anything of the sort happening."

"But...you sent us our zords and gave us the power to go to megazords .How do ya not remember that?" Flynn's accent seemed to get thicker with his disbelief.

Dillon walked up, about to ask the team what was going on when Ziggy grinned, "K didn't do that, I did!" he said proudly, beaming around at them, "She was busy helping Aya Seven so I pushed the buttons to help out."

There was a lot of gaping at the six year old at that moment. K looked somewhere between ready to burst out in terror that he'd touched her computers like that and being proud he'd learned so fast how to work them. Tenaya broke the silence by laughing, reaching out to pat his head. "You're just full of surprises aren't you, Ziggy? Now why don't you tell Ranger Black what else you found out."

The man looked confused, reaching out to help the child down from a still shocked and dumbstruck Flynn's arms. "What do you mean? I know K wanted to tell me something but what did Ziggy find out?"

The boy hugged his older friend and bounced a bit on his toes, a sure sign that he was feeling very proud and happy. "I made it work! I made the song play!" he told Dillon.

Instinctively, the man reached into his pocket for the watch he usually kept. At not finding it, he remembered curling up with the tot the night before and Summer carrying him off in the morning. He blanched realizing she must not have taken the items back from Ziggy before putting him to bed.

"And where is it now, Ziggy?" he asked the boy, kneeling and looking wide eyed. His moment of panic was interrupted, suddenly by the sound of a key turning in his pocketwatch and the second song on it beginning to play. Standing up once more, he stared in shock at Tenaya, then back down to Ziggy and back again. The boy's smile was wide and he immediately rushed over to Summer's leg as Dillon moved forward to talk to his sister.

The blonde knelt, picking up Ziggy once more and pressing a kiss to his cheek. "That was very good of you to do, Ziggy." she told him, nudging Scott lightly with her elbow and heading towards the kitchen. They needed to give the siblings a bit of space. Out of the corner of her eye, Summer could see Gem and Gemma dragging the still horribly shocked Flynn back towards the kitchen and out of the way.

Yes, today had been a good day, albeit one full of surprises. But this WAS Ziggy after all. And he was full of those, as they were all finding out more and more. With a fond pat on his shoulder, Scott spoke to Ziggy, "If you're getting so good at handling Ranger Gear, maybe I should teach you to fight so you can be ready to join again when you're a grownup." It was meant as a joking comment but there was a twinkle in his eyes that showed he was highly considering it. After all, this Ziggy hadn't started learning weird coping mechanisms or become set in his ways or styles yet – he could still be taught and Scott was beginning to think it was a good idea to see about teaching him.


	7. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: **Just another lil bit of fun, written at the urging of some friends. Thanks to QueenRiley for the inspiration for this. If you want to read a wonderful story with a similar premise to this fic, you should check out her fic 'Innocence' – it's amazing.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Power Rangers or any related media or characters. The story idea is partly own but the rest isn't. Everything is copyrighted to its respective owners.

**WARNING!:** This fic will contain slash, femslash and possibly even some het (le gasp). Fic rating might change depending on what I write for later chapters, but I will warn before any mature scenes. Please keep this in mind.

**Extra Note: **Contains some spoilers for certain plot points in the series, maybe. Slight AU since it strays from canon – but most of my fics do that, ne?

Haha, Ziggy's just so helpful and problem solving this fic. Maybe a bit too much but I'm mostly doing this for WAFF and fluff, sorry. XD

* * *

This young version of Ziggy existed, it seemed, to keep the team on their toes. Just as they'd been getting used to him being there, he'd dragged Tenaya in. Once that had become normal, he'd grown. And once they were starting to settle into that, he'd managed to discover that Tenaya was Dillon's sister and everything went and got confused again. Plus, if Dr. K was right, he was due to grow in the next week or so.

Flynn found himself alone in the Garage one morning, looking forlornly at some pictures on the table. With the team pushing Venjix back a bit, they'd been able to take a few trips into the Wastes with some military scavenger teams to recover some supplies to help out the city. All sorts of things could help, from scrap metal to the scraps of fabric and slightly growing plants that had cropped up in a few places. One of the things they'd found that he'd so desperately wanted to buy before they turned it to scrap metal was an old Aston Martin. It was a gorgeous machine and with the right parts, right mechanic and a good paint job, it could be back to perfection. But even if Flynn had the money for the car before they turned it in, he'd never have the cash for the parts.

He felt the presence of another person in the room right around the time Ziggy's small chin started resting on his shoulder. The Scotsman grinned over at the boy, though a bit sadly, "What're you doin up so early, ey?" he asked, knowing it was early even for him to be out of bed. Flynn usually didn't start making smoothies for an hour or so.

"Couldn't sleep. Chu lookin at?" Ziggy asked, poking at the pictures, "Pretty car."

The man nodded a bit, "Yeah, a real beauty. Can you believe they're gonna scrap the beaut in a week if no one buys 'er?" he said and at the look of shock on Ziggy's face, he nodded, "I've been thinkin of goin over to get it but I dunno."

Ziggy looked at it for a bit before his eyes turned back to the older man, "Why can't you get it? No where to put it?"

He pulled a face at that, shakin his head, "Nah, there's room at my da's for it, he fixes cars and has room for another if I wanna bring it by. An I've got just abou' enough for it, but it'd never be enough for the parts too." he explained. However, as Flynn was saying this, Ziggy's eyes seemed to sparkle for a moment, a mischievous look he always seemed to get when an idea came to him.

"Can we go look at it, before they make it scraps?" the boy asked quietly, seeming to understand how Flynn felt at least a little bit. The man couldn't bring himself to say no and just pat Ziggy's head before sending the tot back to bed, a sad look on his face as he did.

Ziggy seemed to be a flurry of energy for the next week. Summer had barely seen him, apart from when he was getting ready for bed – which he was much more tired around – and when he was being called to lessons with K or Scott. Most of the team found it odd that he was out so much, but the boy wasn't hurt and they hadn't gotten any calls that he was breaking the law, so everything was fine for a time. In fact, the only person who was positive they'd seen him everyday was Flynn, who spotted the boy each morning very early and was greeted with questions about whether or not someone had bought the Aston Martin or if it was still there. Each time Flynn had affirmed it wasn't bought and that they'd go and see it that Saturday before they scraped it.

When Saturday morning came, Ziggy woke Flynn before the sun was even up, shaking the older man's shoulder hard. "Flynn! Flynn you gotta get up!" he said. The man batted his hands away lightly, "S'not gonna be scrapped till the afternoon, they're usin the mornin to end auctions." he mumbled sleepily.

"Noooo, come on Flynn. Come seeee." Ziggy was persistent till the man finally sat up and followed him sleepily towards the boy's room. It was lucky that Flynn was generally a morning person after he got going – had it been Scott, Ziggy'd have gotten a very stern talking to.

In Ziggy's room, the boy ducked down to an area beside his bed and pulled up a floorboard that Flynn remembered planning to nail when they'd rearranged the boy's room and he felt it shift, but had never gotten around to it. Luckily he hadn't too because the boy pulled out an old tin with comic book characters on it that very obviously belonged to the older Ziggy. Inside was what was definitely the man's savings, if the large envelop that was full of neatly arranged bills and the wads of sloppily thrown in ones and change were any indication.

He showed this to Flynn proudly, looking triumphant, "There's lots here, I found it when I was lookin for a place to hide my saved stuff last week! I was doin jobs for people in town to get money so you could get parts and paint!" the boy babbled happily, "Big me was saving money too! Look see!"

Before Flynn could protest that the boy shouldn't be getting into the older him's savings without knowing what they were for, the child pulled out the thickly stuffed envelop. On the underside were the words 'Vehicle Fund' hastily scribbled in what was unmistakably the older Ziggy's scrawl (the younger being taught by K to write better while she could get it into him). From the amount being saved, it was obvious he'd really wanted to stop being at the mercy of the team and their moods and schedules to get to battles or anywhere really. As he realized where the child was going with all of this, his face cracked into a grin.

In Flynn's truck, Ziggy could barely contain his excitement and neither could his driver. They were about to go do something that, for Flynn, was wild and crazy and something he would only have hoped and dreamed of before. They waited with the money in front of the junkyard till it was open and immediately went in to purchase the car they'd both been thinking about for the past week. It wasn't drivable yet, obviously, but as the pair sat in the leather front seats, there was still a sense of triumph between them. As the pair reached up to high five at their accomplishment, Ziggy's form glowed green. The hand that hit Flynn's was that of a ten year old and the smile just as bright and accomplished.

Flynn's dad was surprised to see his son and a ten-year-old kid bringing a beaten up Aston Martin to his garage that day, but he was happy for the visit just the same. "Ey, brought a friend did you, lad? And who might this be?"

The man grinned, his hand landing hard on Ziggy's shoulder but not enough to buckle the boy's knees, "This, da' is Ziggy. He's one of the team – well, when he's his proper age anyway." he joked, grinning at the kid who shook Flynn's dad's hand respectfully and with that same wide smile.

"Oh is it now? Well nice to meet you boy. Is this your car you two're bringing here?" the man asked Ziggy with a smile that made it obvious where Flynn got his from, and a twinkle in his eye.

Before the child could respond and say that no, it was just something he'd helped Flynn get, the older man answered. "It will be when he's old enough to handle a car." Ziggy gaped at him and the ranger managed to get his revenge for the surprise that morning, "Well you donate your 'vehicle fund' so we could get parts to fix her, now di'n't you?" he pointed out and Ziggy scratched the back of his head nervously, trying not to get too excited or bouncy in front of his friend's Dad.

They returned from their visit to Flynn's dad's by mid-afternoon, most of the team having become very curious as to where the pair was. When they walked in, Ziggy a bit older and ice cream in their hands, everyone breathed a sigh of relief before bombarding them with questions. The pair refused to answer any inquiries into their morning's activities, and Ziggy was soon heading back to the labs to see Dr. K, since the woman had made him promise to come for testing next time he grew.

At ten, Ziggy was able to handle more chores, lessons and games. Scott was astounded at how well he was taking to the fighting style he was being taught, and Dr. K was infinitely pleased with the boy's progress in the lessons she gave him. Without a ton of orphans expecting him to be great because he was the eldest, and with some actual role models, the boy was thriving.

Presently, the child was seated in Dr. K's lab as she worked on a little project that Tenaya was helping her to test. While the team had been doing well so far, even short one member, the woman knew it wouldn't be long before they'd start needing to be up to full strength and fast. Since she couldn't predict how long it would take him to grow – his last spurt having taken longer than the first one to come about – she merely decided to start working on an extra morpher.

Ziggy was getting very good at the whole "predicting what to hand the person you're helping" business, having been around Flynn and his Dad enough to start getting used to it. So it was no surprise that he could have K's tools in her hand before she'd even really bothered to ask. The fact that he was working with some of them on a small item in his lap also helped with that. Tenaya, meanwhile, was relaxing against the main desk and keeping an eye on the Ranger's progress on their latest training exercise (which was thankfully in the city this time) all the while chatting animatedly with her companions.

"He's not happy that you're letting me test this at all." she commented, starting up a new thread of the conversation as her robotic eyes scanned the readings from the team at a pace too rapid for most humans.

K glanced up for a second, trading the item she held with something Ziggy was offering, "Who isn't happy about me letting you test what exactly?" she inquired, turning back to her tools. The boy had to reach forward quickly to snap the young genius's goggles back down onto her eyes – when she was using the safer tools, they'd end up pushed up on her forehead, given how uncomfortable they were, but the item he'd just handed her was a bit more dangerous and he knew she'd forgotten about the goggles completely.

Tenaya sighed, "My brother," she grumbled, leaning back lightly to watch Ziggy helping her friend – well, more than a friend really – work, "He doesn't want me getting involved in the fight against Venjix more than I already am. I've been trying to tell him there's no way I can NOT be involved at this point, but he just won't listen."

Ziggy took this moment to chime in from his position on one of K's tables, "It's cause he loves you and doesn't wanna lose you again." he commented, reaching for a tool and realizing it was the one he'd handed the doctor, "Hey, K, I need that when you're done." he told her, pushing his own goggles up to hold his massive bangs out of his eyes. Tenaya laughed at that, eying the small contraption in his lap.

"Since when did you get so handy with machines, huh kiddo? As I remember, you were pretty clumsy and accident prone as an adult." she inquired, tossing one of her marshmallow bits at him, which he caught much like the girl had trained him to do.

The boy snorted, "S'cause no one tried to teach me when I was young the first time - I was kinda busy learnin' pick pockets while people were busy laughin' at me falling over like a doofus." Ziggy commented, sticking his tongue out a bit as he fiddled with a small piece of wire and some pliers.

Tenaya's eyebrows shot up to her hairline, "Oh really now? And how do you know this, huh?"

Ziggy shrugged, eventually managing to finagle the wire into working how he wanted, "Dunno, just started remembering stuff. Like last night I had a dream about a coupla older kids showin us how to steal stuff without getting caught. S'how we got any pocket money 'pparently." his voice had slipped into slang with distraction, and the girl could pick up traces of having talked to Flynn a bit too much in his speech patterns.

"As you age, your memories should be returning." Dr. K agreed, pushing her goggles once more and handing the boy the tool he'd been waiting on. Quickly he put his own back down and got to working on the little part while K walked over to check on the training and steal a marshmallow from Tenaya, "Though I do hope you won't be using the information gained in from that particular instance, Ranger Green." she gave him a stern look.

The brown haired boy looked up at them for a second, turning the tool off while he did. The goggles give him a strange bug-eyed look that was actually kind of adorable with his messy brown curls flopping everywhere except where the band of the goggles restricted it against his head. "Why would I need to do that anyway? The people in the area don't seem to mind paying me for chores, and Summer spoils me with a nice allowance."

That comment got a hearty laugh out of Tenaya as she lightly batted K's hand away from her marshmallows in a halfhearted attempt to defend her treat. "That's cause you've got one of those faces that's deceptively angelic – all the housewives and grannies in the area think you're too cute to resist."

Ziggy smiled some at that but rubbed his face a bit at the thought, "Yeah, but the grans like pinching my cheeks. Flynn says it builds character though." he mumbled, going back to the little piece of equipment he was working on. It was something K had given him the basic schematics for and let him play around with.

The device would hopefully end up being put in the Aston Martin. He and Flynn had ended up having to reveal its existence to K, Tenaya and the twins after the man had showed up towards the end of several of the small group's lessons with Ziggy to pick the boy up and take him to work on it. They had actually thought the idea was superb and had been doing whatever they could to help out, including keeping it a secret from the rest of the team. After all, this was their special project and would be a surprise when they brought it out, all fixed and improved, to join the others' cars in the Garage's main area.

As K returned to work on the morpher, the conversation drifted back to Dillon's over-protectiveness of his sister. However, after a while the younger girl came to a stopping place and motioned for Tenaya to join her. "I think I have the basic morphing components complete, but I will need you to see if the suit fits properly, Miss Seven." she commented quietly, glancing up at the other with mischief in her eyes. Ziggy rolls his under the goggles and gathered up the tools and his project to move over to K's chair. He knew what usually happened when the two of them went off to privately test certain new features of the morpher – they'd work for a while but then K would end up admiring how Tenaya looked in the spandex (Tenaya was also the only person allowed to call it spandex to her face) and things would get derailed from there. Ziggy, was thankfully, competent enough to be in charge of her systems while this was going on.

Usually, the boy could just continue his projects, occasionally glancing up to check on the training mission. Today, it seemed, Venjix had decided to make it a hassle on him. As the alarms went blaring around the base, Ziggy pushed up his goggles enough to call the rangers on the com-link. "Hey guys, there's a shield breach by the filtration plant." he told them, listing off the place the blinking red dot and grinder footage in front of him were indicating. He had to read carefully to give them a more exact position than 'filtration plant' but most of the group knew the team well enough that they knew what he was talking about anyway.

As he leaned back, intent to watch the battle, a very annoyed looking bald man appeared on screen. Ah, the Colonel. Scott's dad was a huge hardass with more rules and regulations on the brain than his son and Ziggy had thankfully avoided him for the most part prior to this. When appearing before him, the team had given the excuse that Ranger Green was presently 'indisposed and unavailable for comments' and he didn't exactly visit much. Still, Ziggy forced a small smile and tried to look as polite as one could look with a huge set of goggles on their head and messy working clothes on. "Yes sir? How may I help you?" like he didn't know – the Colonel wanted to berate K about something they already knew, the filtration station being under attack.

The Colonel looked furiously taken aback, "Just who the hell are you?" he said sternly, "Where is Dr. K?" he didn't have as much respect for Dr. K after finding out she'd created the Venjix virus, and while the boy didn't remember any of his interactions with the man as an adult, he did know to not get too far on his bad side.

"Dr. K's lab assistant." he replied, knowing better than to tell the full truth, "The good doctor is presently occupied in the development and testing of new equipment to assist the Project Ranger in defending the city. Till she is finished that, I am taking her place." His speech became much more polite and formal, much like how K spoke and addressed him when she was being professional.

The Colonel tried to compose himself before demanding more answers, "Have you sent the team to the Filtration Plant yet? That plant is vital to many-"

"-important functions in Corinth's eco-system? Yes, sir, I am aware of that and the team should have arrived on the scene a few moments ago." he tried not to smile too smugly at the older male while he said this, knowing full well the man wasn't always confident that K could do her job, particularly at such a young age. "I will be sure to call if your men are needed to be summoned, should the situation get too out of hand for the team to handle."

The Colonel glared daggers at him, "Just who do you think you are, boy? Aren't you a bit too young to be Dr. K's lab assistant? You can't be older than ten!"

Ziggy smiled sweetly, "I think you need to stop harassing me and let me do my job, sir. My age is not a factor in whether or not I can handle this technology, and I assure you, that I am quite a bit more trained and competent than your average ten-year-old. Good day, Colonel." and he promptly shut off the call, turning to press a button on the com-link.

"Rangers, report." he asked, leaning lightly on the desk.

"There's heavy grinder activity in this area, as well as Kilobyte and a new bot. We're presently trying to divert them away from the plant." came Scott's heavily distracted answer. The boy smiled, swiveling in his chair and pressing a button, "Affirmative, Ranger Red. You are clear for download of weapon upgrade items." he informed the older man, a teasing note to his technical talk. Scott thanked him and just before turning off the com, the boy added one thing, "Oh, and Scott? Your Dad might want to punch me and Dr. K so try to avoid him today."

The groan he heard from Scott followed by the laughter of the rest of the team was so worth having to deal with the Colonel. "Whoop, looks like the Colonel's finally seen little-Zigs." Flynn laughed, already summoning the upgrade item for his Turbo Cannon. "Who'd you tell him you were, Ziggy?" Summer asked gently, already inserting the upgrade to her zip charger.

Smirking, the boy leaned back in his chair to keep an eye on the team's power level stats. "Oh just K's assistant. Apart from saying that and telling him I'm ten, I only gave information on your status and told him I'd call if you needed backup." his tone was soft and airy, as if he totally hadn't just hung up on the military leader of the city he was in.

Dillon's amusement at the whole situation was audible in his voice as he spoke up, "Sounds like the boy's learning how to deal with your dad just fine, Scott." he teased, all the while deflecting a heavy blast from the Attackbot with his shield ability. Ziggy glanced over at the man's power levels, making sure they remained stable. So far so good.

K and Tenaya came out after a time, the taller of the pair wearing a purple ranger outfit but no helmet so her dark hair could fall loose at her shoulders. "What's happening?" the younger inquired, looking at Ziggy for an answer, the boy idly pressing buttons to allow Zord configuration like it was nothing. "Just a routine Venjix attack. I had to send them their weapons upgrades though. And deal with the Colonel."

The little Doctor rolled her eyes, nudging Ziggy out of her seat so she could flop down into it. A ten year old lab assistant who understood all the workings of being a Ranger and learned humor from Ranger Black and Miss Seven was not at all the kind of person who should be answering when the Colonel called. And yet, she vaguely wondered if there was a recording of the conversation, just so she could see the look on the man's face when Ziggy backsassed him. That would make her day.


	8. Chapter 7

**Author's Note: **Just another lil bit of fun, written at the urging of some friends. Thanks to QueenRiley for the inspiration for this. If you want to read a wonderful story with a similar premise to this fic, you should check out her fic 'Innocence' – it's amazing.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Power Rangers or any related media or characters. The story idea is partly own but the rest isn't. Everything is copyrighted to its respective owners.

**WARNING!:** This fic will contain slash, femslash and possibly even some het (le gasp). Fic rating might change depending on what I write for later chapters, but I will warn before any mature scenes. Please keep this in mind.

**Extra Note: **Contains some spoilers for certain plot points in the series, maybe. Slight AU since it strays from canon – but most of my fics do that, ne?

* * *

The Colonel was NOT pleased to have been talked back to by a ten year who claimed to be K's lab assistant and soon as things were secure in the city, he headed down to the Garage, Corporal Hicks in toe, to confront the young genius about her helper. The team were in the kitchen, all clustered around for dinner, including Dr. K and Ziggy. So when the man came in, he was more than surprised to find everyone in the middle of a pleasant and friendly discussion. Even Scott had been loudly laughing as Ziggy and Flynn dished out spaghetti and everyone else joked about stuff.

He cleared his throat, the chatter was instantly hushed, K whipping around in her chair to stare at him – she hadn't expected the Colonel to actually DROP BY to yell at her about earlier. "Yes Colonel?" she inquired, trying not to sound anything other than calm and collected. Not nervous, not upset, not even amused like she was feeling earlier.

The older man huffed, looking down at her sternly, "Just why were you not in your lab today when Venjix attacked, Dr. K?" he demanded, the whole team looking nervously between the pair.

K pursed her lips, "I believe you were already informed of that, Colonel – I was in the process of testing new Ranger Equipment with Miss Seven." she said, indicating where Tenaya sat nearby. The man had already been informed of her joining the team, sort of.

"And are you in the habit of leaving unsupervised children in charge of your job while you are doing such testing?" he snapped.

The entire team looked at him like he was crazy before responding in unison, "YES."

Scott stood at that point, going to stand by Dr. K to defend their mentor, "Jay is a good assistant to Dr. K – he usually just sits and watches her computers in case we radio in during training missions or between K's shifts. If she didn't get a bit of time away to test things properly, we wouldn't be able to have any new equipment complete in time to handle new Venjix attacks."

"So are you all in the habit of hiring random ten year olds for jobs of this nature, which I might remind you, is illegal?" his father shot back, trying to be calm and controlled.

Ziggy took this time to speak up, "I have not been 'hired'. I am something of a relative to Ranger Operator Series Green. I came to help the team out a bit." he explained casually as if this character 'Jay' was a real person who just happened to look like Ziggy since he was a cousin or something. In reality, they'd all rehearsed this little backstory in case of emergencies. Though, they still hadn't figure out what to say about where Ziggy himself was.

The Colonel seemed to be getting worn down on the subject of why the boy was there, but he still wasn't too pleased. "All right then – where IS Ranger Green anyway? You all keep claiming he's busy when you come for meetings at the Control Tower. He can't be too busy to eat dinner with you all, now can he?" there was something suspicious in the man's voice. What were they all hiding?

"You are quite wrong, Colonel. On the contrary, Ranger Green is still presently unable to even join us for dinner." K remarked, fishing for an idea. She was a genius but coming up with a plausible explanation for why a member of her team wasn't even able to go to dinner with them while hiding that he was presently home and way younger.

Coming to her rescue, Ziggy wandered over to look sadly up at Colonel Truman and Corporal Hicks through his bangs. His goggles were still up on his head, smushing them down into his face a bit and adding to the cute, chubby cheeked look of innocent sadness being barely controlled. "Ranger Green is being kept in a special section of the labs." Immediately, the boy averted his eyes, trying to look strong, "He was injured grievously during a fight against a Venjix Attackbot." he whispered, voice pained as if the boy were struggling very hard not to cry.

Corporal Hicks shifted nervously and looked very much like he'd like to offer condolences and maybe pat the boy's shoulder. However, he was with the Colonel right now and that would not be the best time for such things. After a few moments, the older man nodded, accepting their answer. "I hope he returns to full health soon." he stated before looking at K who had automatically pulled Ziggy close to her, "From now on, please instruct your assistant of the proper etiquette when receiving a call during an emergency. That will be all, Dr. K, Rangers. Good day." and immediately, he turned and walked with Hicks back to the car, the younger man waving awkwardly.

Soon as they were gone, Ziggy pulled away from K's side and went to sit at the table again, smiling as if he was totally oblivious to the stares from the rest of the team. Flynn managed to get his voice to work after a few moments, "That...was scarily good acting, lad." he said, almost awestruck at how the ten-year-old had pulled it off.

Dillon reached over to ruffle the boy's hair, "It's one of his natural talents. The older Ziggy just knows not to not abuse that power." he joked.

Scott shook his head, returning to his seat at the table. "I cannot believe we just did that to my Dad. Particularly after you sassed him earlier." he told the boy, looking somewhere between thinking this was an awful idea and wanting to laugh his ass off.

"Sure, it's funny now, but just wait till Ziggy's older and wants something." Summer teased, leaning over to pull the boy into a hug. "He'll use that adorable puppy dog look and we'll all be doomed to serving him." This brought a hearty laugh from Tenaya, who grinned from her position leaning on the counter, "I told you all making him younger made him stronger."

While things did seem to be going well for the team by day, at night things were a different story. Ziggy still was in the habit of staying up with whoever was still awake, but now it was becoming noticeable that it wasn't just because he wanted them to have company. Dillon first discovered this on one of his many sleepless nights, up playing cards with Tenaya in the dark. As the two of them were partly machine, they didn't need to sleep all the time. So they handled their sleeplessness with family bonding.

However, tonight they had the lights off and were being quiet, hoping not to disturb anyone else with their lack of sleep. Most nights, someone was usually up and working at this hour anyway, but the team had had a free day and taken it to catch up on work, so everyone was in bed and the siblings didn't want to disturb them. In this darkness, it did truly seem like no one was awake.

Dillon could hear the soft sound of a person padding downstairs barefoot, but, though his night-vision was perfectly good, was having trouble telling who it was from where they sat. Tenaya glanced at him for a moment before standing and going to check on the noise. After a short time, the woman returned, Ziggy following awkwardly after her. His eyes were squinted but watery around the edges and he was chewing his lip carefully. The pale tint to his skin and the shake to his steps made it obvious this wasn't just another bout of acting to get something.

"Hey, what's up?" he asked, leaning over to pull Ziggy onto a spot on the couch. The boy curled up by his side gently, but didn't seem inclined to speak. Tenaya smiled, retaking her seat on the coffee table so they could get back to their game. "You can just stay down here if you're having bad dreams, don't worry." They both knew plenty about nightmares and about not wanting to talk to people about the memories or how they hurt, even pleasant ones.

The child curled against Dillon's side and seemed to fall back asleep, content to be near the man. Even if Ziggy didn't remember they were involved or in love – they had all decided it inappropriate to tell him that – the boy did still seem to appreciate having the older man to hold and protect him. Tenaya smirked over at them, at the way her brother just leaned back and let Ziggy curl into his side, holding his cards so one of his arms was wrapped around the younger male a little without trouble.

Every now and then, the boy would start to shake a bit and wake up gasping, at which point the older ranger would reach down to rub his back a bit till he settled once more. It went on like that through the night till Ziggy had apparently gotten enough broken rested time to be more awake. At which point they let the boy join their card game.

A few days later, Summer had come to see him, "Hey Dillon? You were up the other night, weren't you?" she inquired, having started noticing what days the man did and didn't seem to need sleep.

Dillon blinked before nodding, "Yeah, why?"

"Well, because the last few nights, Ziggy's crawled into my bed again while I was up reading and he's had a lot of nightmares. I wondered if he maybe went to you when he thought no one else was up." She explained, that look of motherly concern on her face.

The man nodded but shrugged, "He's getting back some of his memories. They make it hard to sleep. That's really I can tell you."

Summer gave him a look, before sighing, "Can't you talk to him?"

Honestly, did they think that's how it worked? "Nothing I say is going to help. His mind is throwing images at him and he can't stop it. They're choppy, they're confusing and they aren't going to stop. Nothing anyone says or does can stop that from being painful and frightening, especially to a little kid." He snapped this before storming off, not wanting to have to deal with any sympathy or confusion, neither of which would help his mood any.

Climbing into his car, Dillon wasn't at all surprised when Ziggy soon after climbed into the passenger's seat, quiet and nervous looking. He knew the boy had followed him and that was okay. Ziggy seemed glad that at least someone in the house knew what he was going through and was willing to stand up and say to just let him be about it.

"Want to go for a drive?" the black ranger asked after a moment, looking at the child beside him. Now was a point when going around to see the city would be best. Just taking some time to let things air out and settle their moods. Part of him felt connected to Ziggy in a way he never had before at this moment. Before, the other may have accepted him and just tried to be understanding, but the younger man had never truly understood just what Dillon was going through not having any memories. The fact that this younger Ziggy was going through the same sort of thing now made it different. He still couldn't have his boyfriend back just yet and he might never again if things were too different when Ziggy was an adult again. But they had this, and that was good enough for now.

A few days later, Scott came over to Dillon to see if he knew anything about Ziggy not sleeping, and that was followed by nervous questions by Flynn and the Twins. Even Dr. K seemed concerned about the boy's sleeping habits and they all knew who the only one who'd be able to explain it was. The worst part of it all, though, was seeing Ziggy. It was obvious that he heard every time the others asked, knew how worried or disappointed they were, and it hurt that he had to deal with these flooding memories and emotions. And that tore at his heart to see – at least when Dillon started getting his own memories back he wasn't a small child with a ton of responsibilities and the need for a lot of sleep.

The man almost had deja vu when it happened again, him sitting up in the living room, playing solitaire since Tenaya was busy with K. He didn't even have to look up when there was shuffling on the stairs. "Hey Zigs."

"Mmph, you sleep less than me, how're you not tired?" the boy mumbled, going over to curl up against the older man's side. Dillon smiled and hugged the younger male to him a bit. "I've got robotics, they give me more energy." Ziggy seemed to accept this, staying beside him quietly through the night. Ever now and then he'd reach out to move a card for his companion, a bad habit of his when he was older, but otherwise it was just a nice, quiet evening for them. The memories flooding the boy were stronger today and keeping him up for longer, but having Dillon nearby to hold and protect him made it a bit better. It wasn't till morning that he'd start remembering why.

The pair did eventually doze off on the couch, their twenty-seventh game of solitaire laid out half completed on the table. When Summer came down to check on the two and see about breakfast, however, she noticed something. Lying against Dillon wasn't a ten-year-old boy. A thirteen year old Ziggy was snoozing close to his former boyfriend and that meant only one thing. Things were going to get just a bit more odd around here, Summer thought with a smile, particularly since this would be the start of puberty for the former Green Ranger. And that was never not-weird.


	9. Chapter 8

**Author's Note: **Just another lil bit of fun, written at the urging of some friends. Thanks to QueenRiley for the inspiration for this. If you want to read a wonderful story with a similar premise to this fic, you should check out her fic 'Innocence' – it's amazing.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Power Rangers or any related media or characters. The story idea is partly own but the rest isn't. Everything is copyrighted to its respective owners.

**WARNING!:** This fic will contain slash, femslash and possibly even some het (le gasp). Fic rating might change depending on what I write for later chapters, but I will warn before any mature scenes. Please keep this in mind.

**Extra Note: **Contains some spoilers for certain plot points in the series, maybe. Slight AU since it strays from canon – but most of my fics do that, ne?

* * *

Sunday afternoons were awesome, provided Venjix was attacking. Scott and Summer would take the time to leisurely stroll around the city, talking and being generally romantic and doing couples things. Gem and Gemma would use it to set up whatever new idea for fun they had for that evening or developing weapons. Dillon would either work on his car or go out on the town for a while, not really bothering to tell anyone where or why. Tenaya had taken to dragging K on outings during this time, making sure the younger girl got enough sunlight and actually did things. That usually left Ziggy to watch for Attackbots and summon the team if they were separated, but he could still do what he wanted around the Garage for the most part. And what he wanted to do was help Flynn, since the pair tended to use Sundays as their paling around and work time.

The Aston Martin was coming along nicely, but wasn't ready to be moved to the garage. Since Flynn took a lot of his free time with Ziggy to work on it, he had very little time for stuff with his truck. The man didn't mind, really, since working on a beautiful machine was wonderful either way, and he was having fun actually rebuilding and improving the car. But this did mean he needed to use Sundays to work on his personal vehicle, and with Ziggy stuck around the Garage too, they kept each other company during this.

As Flynn was leaning up from being buried under the hood of his car and was surprised to see a glass full of pink smoothie and a parasol being held out to him. "Hey, wha's this for?" he asked, accepting the drink with a grin. They usually waited till around three or four to start making smoothies, so if the boy was making one at only noon, there was usually a reason.

Ziggy shrugged, "I was testing out a new recipe and I needed a reason to be in the kitchen area and distracted."the boy admitted sheepishly, taking a seat on a stool by Flynn's car. The older man was about to ask why when he noticed where his friend's eyes drifted as he spoke – the young brunette's eyes were fixed sadly on Dillon's back as the man napped on the couch. Previously, Dillon had been up and working on the Fury next to Flynn, so that explained things a little.

The Scotsman sighed a bit, shaking his head and stirring the drink he'd been given a bit, "Still avoidin him?" he asked, having noticed the younger male's need to duck out of rooms or become very engrossed in things whenever Dillon was around. The two still had a few moments where they were close, but it was obvious there was something Ziggy wasn't quite comfortable with between the two of them now.

The boy nodded sheepishly, a blush coming to his cheeks before he took a long sip of his drink. Flynn was tasting his own then and blinked, "You changed the recipe a lot." he commented, pretty sure he tasted some yogurt in here, among other things. Personally, he usually used milk. Pretty good still. The curly haired boy grinned at Flynn's approval, going back to working on the parts he had brought out to deal with.

After a while of silent work and smoothie drinking, the blue ranger decided to speak up again, "Zigs, I gotta ask – why ARE you avoiding Dillon? You two didn't have a fight did you?" Though if they had, that didn't explain why the older man looked so confused when Ziggy'd slip out the second he entered the room.

The boy looked like he was considering something for a bit before he stood, walking over to lean on the truck as he spoke, "Flynn, what do you have going with Gem and Gemma?" he asked, not looking at the older man as he temporarily changed the subject.

This brought a strange noise from Flynn, a choking sound that caused Ziggy to look over nervously to see if his friend was hurt. What he saw was the older man losing control and letting out a hearty laugh. "So THAT'S what the trouble is!" he said, suddenly realizing what was going on. When his friend looked a little hurt and confused, the older man waved a hand, leaning down to whisper conspiratorially to him, "Zig, is your difficulty with Dillon that you're startin' ta realize you might be gay?" he asked, that musical accent adding such a mischievous quality to the teasing phrase.

Immediately, the boy's face turned redder than Scott's uniform and he looked ready to stutter something out. Flynn pat his companion's shoulder lightly, taking up a wrench again and smiling, "No worries if you are, sport – you were before too." this comment was made as Flynn leaning back into his truck to work some more as they spoke.

At that, Ziggy looked surprised, darting forward to look at what was visible of the other ranger's shoulders, "What, you mean it?" well, that was a relief at least – it meant the others would at least understand his preferences. Even if it didn't mean it would make finding Dillon unbelievably attractive any less embarrassing or awkward. You weren't supposed to get puppy crushes on your older friends that had helped raise you – not even crushes that felt like a good deal more.

From under the hood, Flynn snickered a bit before shaking his head and patting Ziggy's head with one oily hand – much to the boy's dismay. "Yes, you were. And we all knew it and were fine about tha'." the man sighed and rolled his eyes, pointing the wrench at his friend, "Now, ya gotta promise not to tell anyone I tol' you this, cause we all agreed not to tell you so it wouldn' sway your opinions or nothin, but that's already kinda done so here you go," Ziggy was watching Flynn with rapt attention now, wondering just what this was that the others hadn't wanted to tell him, "You and Dillon, well, ya used to be involved."

At this, Ziggy's eyes widened considerably and he turned to stare open mouthed at the man sleeping on the couch, a blush creeping to his cheeks. Had he really been with other once? If so, then why hadn't anyone mentioned it to him – the boy may be young but he was pretty sure it had to be damn awkward for Dillon to be dealing with a child version of his former boyfriend. Turning to Flynn, he silently asked why, knowing the other man understood by now.

"Well, when you first changed, we decided that wasn't something you needed to know just yet. After this last time you grew though, he kinda asked us not to tell you since he didn't want you feelin like you had to like him or whatever. Personally, I thought it was stupid – if you were that way before, then you're that way, and if you found him attractive and worth dating before, you most likely would when you got to be about that age or remembered." Flynn explained. Since changing again, Ziggy's memory floods had been slowing down and becoming less painful, and they'd all kind of known he'd remember his relationship and feelings for the black ranger eventually – they had just agreed not to tell if Ziggy asked out of courtesy for Dillon's feelings. They hadn't taken Ziggy's into account, not realizing puberty brought out a lot of things not everyone was ready to deal with and thirteen was about when all of that crap started.

Ziggy sighed and held up the toolbox for Flynn to grab the one he wanted, "How did you know that was what was wrong when I started to ask about you and the twins anyway?"

The ranger chuckled, shaking his head, "I'm not daft, Ziggy. I know you well enough by now to know the way your brain works," he poked the boy's forehead as he said this, "You wanted to know how I knew I loved both of them, ne?" At his friend's nod, Flynn smirked, "Well when you start askin stuff like that, right after wistfully staring and blushing at a guy who you've been avoiding, it gets a little obvious. Especially when he was your boyfriend as an adult."

For that, the boy hit his friend's arm with an oily rag and the pair began to fight back and forth a bit, abandoning the toolbox and just roughhousing some. Dillon was woken up by their laughter and found himself staring at a laughing Ziggy caught in the Scotsman's grip as Flynn gave the boy a noogie, the pair obviously having a blast. Though he chuckled at the scene, he couldn't help a sad and slightly jealous pang in his chest – at one point, it would have just been him and Ziggy laughing like that.

The man would have gone back to sleep, but at that point Gem and Gemma came thundering down the stairs, carrying a set of remote controlled vehicles they'd been building to have a tournament with Ziggy. They stared curiously at the small wrestling match before speaking up, "What are-" Gem started, that cute eager look on his face, "-you two doing?" Gemma finished, eyes sparkling.

"Gem! Gemma! Help! He's captured me!" Ziggy laughed, stretching his free arm for the two, a very playful gesture between the three. It seemed none of them had noticed the black ranger watching, a funny look on his face.

The twins immediately rushed over with superhero poses to help wrestle Flynn off of the younger ranger, the pair tickling him as an attack. The boy whooped and laughed, watching the trio's play. No one ever questioned how Flynn could love two people at once when they saw him like this with both twins, the three all playing and making each other happy. Ziggy turned to look back at where Dillon had been sleeping and caught his eye, blinking in surprise that the other was awake – how long had he been up? However, Dillon just banished whatever thoughts he had and smiled, walking over to clap a hand on Ziggy's shoulder.

"You sure know how to get into trouble." he informed the younger boy, trying to ignore the nervous way his companion flinched away from the touch. Still the curly haired boy smiled up at him and the man tried not to think about missing that smile.

Ziggy's avoiding Dillon didn't really stop at that point, though it did decrease a little bit. The boy was obviously still nervous around his older friend and had even more reason to be now, not that the others knew that. Thankfully, with such busy schedules, there really wasn't much avoiding that needed to be done. The adults all had to deal with saving the city, as well as personal projects, and Ziggy had all kinds of lessons to work on. Really, some days it was surprising they saw each other at all.

Summer enjoyed getting to be 'mama' to the boy. Sure, he wasn't her child and she really wasn't ready to have kids of her own, but getting to take care of Ziggy like this was nice for both of them. He needed a mom and she needed someone to coddle and mother. Scott would joke she was trying to guilt him into marrying her by looking so cute when she was being motherly. Ziggy would promptly joke back that Scott might have something wrong with him if he needed to be guilted into marrying Summer. At that point things would usually devolve into Scott smacking the boy upside the head and getting hitting back, and the pair play fighting while Summer laughed.

Presently, the pair were relaxed on the couch, watching a documentary on some forest creatures that'd been alive before Venjix. There was an open pizza on the coffee table and Ziggy had his head resting against Summer's chest. The blonde was lightly petting his hair as they watched, telling him about having seen some of these critters in zoos as a child. The boy seemed content just to have her nearby, but the interesting subject matter did help.

"Hey Summer?" he asked after a while, glancing up at her, "What was I like as an adult?" It was something that'd been partly bugging the boy for a while. He did get flashes of certain parts of his older years, but being a power ranger or too much about the team was still missing. The youth was pretty sure they hadn't been as fond of him the first time around, but something in him still wanted to know.

The blonde blinked down at her companion before sighing and resting her head against his, "Well, you were energetic, that's for sure," she told him with a small laugh, hand moving down to rub soothing circles along his back. "And you were always raring to do stuff, even if you left us all behind."

He nodded quietly, shifting against the woman to hug her lightly. "Thanks," he mumbled against her chest and Summer smiled, pulling him close and hugging back, "Of course Ziggy. You're family to us, and don't you forget that." the woman promised softly. And none of them would forget it either.

"Heeeeeeeey, what's-" "-going on-" "-over-" "-here?" the twins popped up from behind the couch, identical grins on their faces. Summer rolled her eyes and smiled a little as Ziggy sat up to stick his tongue out at them. "You two're just jealous because Summer and I got to see the polar bear documentary first." he teased, grinning at his two best friends.

Instantly, their eyes widened in amazement, "You two found-" "-the documentary on polar bears?"

The boy snickered, "Yeah, I tried to call you. Something about Flynn asking first, remember?" he pointed out, reaching forward to poke each of their noses as he said this. Gem and Gemma looked at each other, blushing for a moment before turning back, "We can-" "-watch it now though-" "-right?"

Summer snorted, kissing Ziggy's forehead lightly and standing up, "Yes, you three can watch that together and polish off the pizza. I'm going to go see about getting some extra cash off of the other guys." she said with a smile, heading over towards where Dillon and Scott were playing a round of pool.

"Hello gentlemen, how's it going over here." she asked cheerily, picking up a cue and leaning on it with an impish smile reminiscent of the boy she'd been helping to care for. Summer knew she was good at these sorts of things, but Ziggy's influence had added a little to her more devilish side.

Scott looked up and snorted, "Looks like the master's finally come to play." the man commented, sharing a grin with Dillon who was shaking his head. They all knew about Summer's legendary pool skills.

The woman smirked, going to take a seat near the table, behind where Dillon was lining up a shot. "So what were you two talking about over there?" the brunette asked, taking his time to get the shot aimed perfectly. Scott nodded, looking to his girlfriend for an answer – if there was something up, he wanted to know.

With a sigh, Summer shook her head, "We were talking about animals for a bit but then he asked me about what he was like as an adult." Dillon's eyes shot to her at that moment, causing the man's shot to go off course and miss a bit.

"What'd you tell him?" he growled quietly. Scott glared at Dillon, "You don't have to get so antsy. She knows how to handle herself."

Brushing her hair over a shoulder, Summer looked to where Ziggy was seated between Gem and Gemma and laughing with them about the bears on screen, "Just that he was energetic really. I didn't want to say too much." the woman admitted sheepishly. Her friend visibly relaxed, and Summer lightly put a hand on his shoulder.

"You'll have him back eventually. Don't worry." she whispered, noticing Scott carefully lean down to take his shot, pointedly not watching them.

Dillon's eyes were on Ziggy as well, not moving from the boy. "His cheeks are still chubby." the man commented finally, earning him a strange look from Summer. "He always had really visible cheekbones as an adult because he was so skinny. It's weird seeing him with chubby cheeks because he's so little." It wasn't really the heart of the matter but it hit on what was wrong – the longer Ziggy was a child with them, the more he missed the older Ziggy and noticed how different they were. Summer just pat his shoulder once more.

"Like she said, you'll get him back eventually." the darker skinned man commented, leaning up from the table, "For now, we've just got to appreciate the one we have. Summer, you can take a turn. I'm going to see if I can snag a slice of that pizza before they kill it." he told them, wandering over towards the couch. Because Scott didn't at all want to get away from the awkward moment or go see whatever Ziggy was motioning him over about in the show. Even if his laughter and half cheer at the fighting polar bears said otherwise.

Summer nudged Dillon's side lightly, indicating he should take his shot. The man let out a sigh and leaned in to line it up. This got harder and harder every day, and they all knew it. But things would get harder still when the boy next grew and started looking and feeling much more like he had as an adult. Because then, Summer was pretty sure, they'd have to start watching Dillon to make sure he was able to hold up – a teenaged Ziggy might just be a bit too much to resist.


	10. Chapter 9

**Author's Note: **Just another lil bit of fun, written at the urging of some friends. Thanks to QueenRiley for the inspiration for this. If you want to read a wonderful story with a similar premise to this fic, you should check out her fic 'Innocence' – it's amazing.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Power Rangers or any related media or characters. The story idea is partly own but the rest isn't. Everything is copyrighted to its respective owners.

**WARNING!:** This fic will contain slash, femslash and possibly even some het (le gasp). Fic rating might change depending on what I write for later chapters, but I will warn before any mature scenes. Please keep this in mind.

**Extra Note: **Contains some spoilers for certain plot points in the series, maybe. Slight AU since it strays from canon – but most of my fics do that, ne?

Rereading this, Flynn's accent's been very inconsistent and I haven't been proofreading as well as I should. Guess the Deeg is just too eager to get new chapters out. XD I'll try to proofread a bit more before sending the next chapters.

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Duck, weave, dodge, parry, block, strike. Terms and motions whizzed through Ziggy's young mind as he attempted to keep on his feet and unharmed as Scott came at him, the older male's moves calculated and precise. When he'd started teaching the boy, the Red Ranger had held back more, merely showing Ziggy the basics and informing him of his mistakes. Now that his pupil had physically grown twice and was showing speedy improvements, he didn't have to hold back as much. If the boy left an opening where he could be hit, the team leader would hit him, and things would continue from there. After all, in a fight against real enemies, they weren't going to stop for you to fix the errors in your form or for you to catch your breath. Well, that was usually the case anyway - grinders tended to be on the stupid side and would occasionally wait for you if asked.

"Come on Zigs, get up." Scott called, looking down at where he'd sent the boy sprawling from a small hit to the chest. His student almost always would roll away from an attack like that or scramble back up soon afterward. The fact that Ziggy wasn't doing so right now either meant he'd been seriously hurt or was hoping for a break. "Come on Ziggy – we're not due to break again for another twenty minutes and you know it. Get up." the man repeated more sternly, but as his student barely moved or groaned, he walked over slowly to check on him.

Soon as the Red Ranger was close enough, he realized his mistake, what with Ziggy springing up from his position on the floor to try and bypass Scott's defenses from below. Had the man not had well trained reflexes and quick thinking, the would probably have been thrown. As it was, the older male managed to grab Ziggy and half pin him, albeit receiving a punch to the jaw before he'd gotten a good hold on the boy.

With his student half held right now, the dark skinned male shook his head, "I can't decide if I should bother reprimanding you for using a dirty trick or not, since that grin tells me you already know it was underhanded." the Red Ranger commented, smiling despite himself at the boy's wild grin.

Ziggy stuck his tongue out, slipping down to a crouch, trying to turn Scott's grip on his arms against the older man, "You said you're teaching me PRACTICAL stuff this time, and deception IS practical." he argued, attempting to use his teacher's own weight and arm position to flip him. It'd have worked better had Ranger Red been moving, but it did get him off of Ziggy and onto the mat again, so it worked just fine.

The ranger kept a firm hold on one of the boy's wrists, yanking the boy back to him and pinning him against the floor. "You have a point. We can talk to K about contesting that mark on your score then later." he joked, knowing the girl tended to monitor their sessions with interest. She claimed it was because seeing the improvements of one member of the team was relevant to her studies. They all knew she just liked to see her little student showing up the others at things, which he got to do every once in a while.

It didn't take long for the pair to get away from bantering once more and back to serious combat practice and training. However, the lighthearted moments between their sparing matches did show how the two were growing closer. This Ziggy wasn't half as afraid of Scott as he had been as a grown up, and Scott was a lot less irritable with the younger ranger. The smaller brunette might not be perfect at everything, but he was a fast learner when he was given time and a patient instructor, which the older male was becoming more and more of.

"How long've you been this age again, Zigs?" Ranger Red asked as he darted around another of the boy's punches, the thought having just struck him that it'd been a while since his teammate grew. They'd all realized he would return to adulthood at some point, and with how short the initial stages were, the team was positive the boy would be back to his old self before too long. However, his current stage had lingered for a long while and K said that things in him were starting to stabilize more and more, meaning jumps between ages would be slower and less jarring for him.

Getting used to this whole 'thinking on your feet' business, the younger male parried a move Scott was sending at him before trying to aim his own and answer, "Least a month 'n a half? Maybe a bit more? I keep forgetting to mark days off on my calendar and K said not to worry about it."

The man rolled his eyes, darting back from Ziggy's hit, "Think you should be due to grow any time now though, right?" he asked, looking like he was leaving an opening for the boy to kick him, but preparing to grab and throw the other.

Zigs stopped a second, looking confused and automatically aiming a punch off from where Scott had left himself open, "Maybe? I don't know – the first time I felt sick the morning of but fine before, and the second time I felt fine even when I was changing. This time I was upset because of other things so I didn't really notice it."

Scott stumbled a bit, the messed up fake out throwing him a tad, "Any clue what you'll be next time?" the older male was pretty sure the boy would be a full on teenager this time, but it was just felt like a natural question.

Taking the opportunity of his commander being off balance, the small brunette ducked down to sweep a kick and send the Red Ranger sprawling. Bouncing on his toes a bit, the boy grinned, "It's 3 – time for a break." as he said this, Ziggy headed over to offer Scott a hand and try to help the larger male off the floor. It wasn't something he could easily do, but the older man thankfully had already mostly gotten his legs under him.

From the side of the training room, applause could be heard, drawing the pair's attention away from their conversation. Gem and Gemma stood in the doorway, bright smiles on their faces, ready to greet the duo for a break. "Hiiiiiii!" the woman called first, darting over to hug Ziggy as her brother came over to shake hands with Scott and smack the man's student lightly on the shoulder. "That was really good." Gem complimented, having seen training sessions before but pretty sure the youngest male in the room could use the praise anyway.

"Thanks." the boy answered before following Gemma's lead into the living room. Scott trailed after them, joking with Gem about whether or not he was losing his edge, or Ziggy just had freak luck.

On the couch Ziggy and Scott flopped down in unison – the boy having learned the proper comfortable limp bodied couch flop from his surrogate "father" - and the twins snickered a bit, taking seats across from where they were. "You two really were talking pretty-" "-seriously there for a bit!" the olive skinned pair commented, eyes wide with curiosity.

The red ranger nodded, "Yeah, I was asking Zigs about when he's next growing. Which reminds me," here he turned to look at the younger boy, "you didn't say what age you thought you'd be about."

Immediately both twins' eyes were on their young protege. Nervously scratching the back of his head, Ziggy tried to come up with a good answer, "Well, if the growth pattern I have been following up to this point remains, I should likely be about 16 or 17." he told them, eliciting a giggle from the twins.

Even with both Scott and Ziggy blinking up at them, it took a moment for them to be able to explain what was so funny, "Oh Ziggy, you just-" "-sound so much like K!" Ranger Red looked at his companion for a second before chuckling and nodding, "You do, kind of."

The boy lightly kicked the older ranger before half reclining against the side of the couch, Scott's chuckles having just increased on the other end, rather than the man retaliating. With a fond smile, the older man looked over at his friend before speaking, "Yanno, when you get to your next age, I should teach you to drive."

This statement was met with shocked faces from the other people in the room. The man looked between the three of them with a raised eyebrow, "What? I said I should teach him to drive, not that I was going to suddenly shave my head and wear a dress. Why all the surprise?" seriously, they were looking at him like he'd gone insane.

Ziggy awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck as he answered, "Well it's just that...um...YOU just offered to teach ME to DRIVE." he pointed out. Sure, he and Flynn had a car for him already and there was the implication that someone might end up teaching him, but Scott of all people? Ziggy may not have remembered EVERYTHING yet, but he did know for sure that one of his last memories of the older man involved him getting yelled at over something to do with Scott's car. Denting it maybe, though Ziggy didn't even remember doing that.

Gem and Gemma backed their friend up, nodding in sync, "You are really-" "-REALLY protective of your car." they said in awe, watching Scott's face he took in these comments.

"Hell, last thing I remember from you is you being pissed that I did something to your car." the brunette added, figuring he might as well put that out there. At that the twins shifted uncomfortably however, "Yeah, you were super pissed at Ziggy-" "-even though it was us that dented it."

The man had been about ready to admit that yes, maybe he was a tad too protective of his car, when the twins admitted to what they'd done. Turning slowly, Scott fixed them with a dark look, "You two did what?" he asked quietly. Had they really just told him he'd been yelling at Ziggy that day for absolutely no reason? The Red Ranger had already felt kind of bad for that but it was a bit of a blow to know not only had he yelled at his teammate for something that stupid, he'd also done it unjustly.

The pair shifted nervously before looking at Scott with guilty expressions, Gem starting the explanation, "We're the ones who dented your car that day-"

"-it was an accident and Ziggy took the fall for us cause he didn't want you to be mad." Gemma finished with a small nod.

"We were really really scared so we were hiding when he came down-"

"-and he just let you yell and then asked us not to do it again. That was the second time-"

"-in a few days he saved us. We were the ones who-"

"-messed up the laundry too."

"We're really really sorry, Scott." The sad expressions on both of their faces was enough to know they were being honest here, and the man just sighed, putting his head in his palm. Really, his team members were scared of him getting pissed over crap like this? It hurt a bit to think that but maybe that was one of the reasons no one listened to him as much as leader – he did a sucky job at it.

Shaking his head, the man sat up and nodded, "Don't worry about it," he said finally, "they were accidents and you guys know better now. Just, next time, come out and tell me the truth, okay?"

Cocking their heads to the side in unison, Gem and Gemma stared at him, "So you aren't-" "-mad at us?" They were actually kind of surprised at that – and at the fact that Ziggy was just watching them with interest rather than commenting. Hopefully he wasn't mad about taking the blame for them either.

Leaning back, the team captain waved a hand lightly, "Don't worry about it." he repeated, reaching over to lightly punch Ziggy on the arm with a smile, "And you don't go taking my crap for stuff you didn't do, you hear me?"

The boy laughed a bit, nodding, "Yeah yeah yeah." he agreed, leaning back on his own end of the couch. "Though this TOTALLY explains why I couldn't remember for the life of me what I'd done to your car."

The group palled around a bit before they had to return to training. Gem and Gemma decided to join in Ziggy's lesson and the boy actually got a rare chance to practice fighting a group – which was a pretty necessary skill for Ranger duty, so Scott had no problem letting them go that route. Things were going pretty well till Summer poked her head in to stop them.

"All right, you guys, I think that's enough for today." the blonde told them with a smile, "Dr. K wants to see you, Scott, and I was going to take Ziggy for ice cream before Flynn steals him to help out at his dad's."

The dark skinned man shrugged, lightly shoving his student towards his girlfriend, "Don't spoil him too much," he joked, "but have a good time you two."

Summer smiled, putting an arm lightly around Ziggy's shoulders as they walked out of the building. He was still a good deal shorter than her, not having gotten the growth spurt that made him so much taller than her just yet, so the woman could still enjoy walking along with her "son" like this. "Did you have a good lesson today?" she inquired, the pair taking their time on the stroll towards the ice cream stand.

"Pretty good – Gem and Gemma joined in at the end so I got to practice against them and Scott. It was pretty cool." the boy told her with a bright grin on his features, feeling pretty optimistic, "And Scott said he'd teach me to drive when I grew next!"

The blonde's eyebrows shot up, "Really now? That's good!" the yellow ranger felt proud of her boyfriend – Scott had matured a lot in the time since Ziggy'd been shrunk. They all had, growing closer as a team and as a family, but it was still gratifying to see the small changes in people as they became apparent.

As the two reached the corner where the ice cream stand was usually set up, Summer slowed down. Her companion had been walking backwards a ways ahead of her, so he didn't see the men as soon as she did. Fresno Bob and a few of his goons – including Benny – had stopped and were having an argument with the stand's owner. The blonde had completely forgotten about the cartels being after Ziggy and seeing as he was old enough to be slightly recognizable by now, they were going to be in some deep trouble if they spotted him.

The brunette, for his part, had just turned around at the sound of the argument. The day was hot, and the men were only vaguely familiar to him, just trying to get some ice cream from the very stubborn shop owner. He was claiming to be closed and out of what they wanted, but it was obvious the man just didn't want to serve these people. Before Summer could call out to stop him, the curly haired boy had dashed over to the front of the cart, raising a brow at the owner.

"What's going on here, Alex?" he asked, glancing between the people in suits and the somewhat grouchy stand owner. Usually when they came by, the person operating the stand was the much more friendly Julia, Alex's daughter but it seemed today she was busy so her father was working things. And unlike his daughter, Alex was a much more hardened and stubborn person, something Ziggy had taken a small dislike to when he'd met the man.

The burly Alex gave the boy a dirty look, "None of your business, boy." he hissed, "I was just telling these men to leave."

Ziggy maintained his calm expression, resting his elbow on the edge of the cart and looking between the still quite stunned cartel men and Alex, "Oh, why? Have they been causing trouble for you?" he asked, "Because it looks to me like they just want to purchase some of your wares and be on their way." As he said this, he turned to smile a bit at Fresno Bob and Benny, who were the ones staring at him the most.

The vendor coughed lightly, jaw clenching, "Yes but I don't want to serve them." he repeated through gritted teeth, glaring daggers at the boy.

It didn't phase the curly haired teen at all, Ziggy just shrugging, "Well that, I do believe, is discrimination. And I don't think people in Corinth really need to be dealing with that over ice cream, now do you?" he asked sweetly, "Though I'm sure these myself and these men could get something much better and with a lot less hassle a few blocks down at Pietro's, so we won't bother you further." Ziggy turned to walk away, looking like he was about to give directions to the men as to where to find the other ice cream stop when Alex sighed, opening his cart.

"FINE. Here. Whatever, I'll serve them." he growled and took the treats Bob and his workers had wanted out. It was a good thing he did too, since Fresno Bob tended to really like the quality of the goods here and really didn't want to go elsewhere, even if the proprietor was being a jackass. And it was really hot today.

The boy smiled up at the gang and waved a bit, heading back towards Summer, "have a nice day, gentlemen." he said. However, as he went the half a block back to his companion, the group followed him. The blonde tensed as Ziggy turned around to smile back at the group again. "Did you need something?"

Fresno Bob looked at him for a few moments, "Do I want to ask, Ziggy, just how you got to be thirteen again?" As if he couldn't recognize the boy like this – particularly as that was how Ziggy Grover had even managed to get in good with the cartel to begin with, being the only person in a particular town willing to serve them regardless of their status.

The teen blinked a bit, vaguely remembering the older men now, and wondering very much why he wasn't scared, "Long story – something about fighting stupid monsters trying to destroy the city." he said with a shrug, smiling at them brightly. Presently, all that was coming to him about the Scorpion Cartel was who was who, how they acted, and that he'd once worked for them. Anything about debts was still a bit fuzzy.

Bob peered at him for a few moments before nodding, "Hope you get better soon, Ziggy. We'll discuss your debt when you're back to your proper age." he assured the teen before nodding to his men and heading back to the limo. Benny smiled brightly and waved a bit to his old friend before following after them – his boss's tone was a pretty good sign that the boy was getting himself at least somewhat back into the man's good graces. And that'd mean less chance of Ziggy getting ghosted.

Summer stared for a bit before grabbing Ziggy into a quick hug. "You should be more careful, Ziggy – those men wanted you dead when you were a grownup." she told him quietly. The boy shrugged a bit, "Well, I'm still here, so let's get our stuff and get on our way, huh? I don't think Alex is in the best of moods with me." he laughed.

The blonde shook her head, reaching out to pull him into another quick hug. "You're just going to worm your way into everyone's hearts aren't you?" she asked, shaking her head and leading the boy away. Little did they know that lurking in the shadows was an Attackbot who had every intention of ending this boy's life, as well as his chances of worming into any more hearts. And if he took out a certain traitorous female in the meantime, what was the harm in that?


	11. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Power Rangers or any related media or characters. The story idea is mostly own – credit to QueenRiley for the inspiriation - but the rest isn't mine, obviously. Everything is copyrighted to its respective owners.

**WARNING!:** This fic will contain slash, femslash and possibly even some het (le gasp). Fic rating might change depending on what I write for later chapters, but I will warn before any mature scenes. Please keep this in mind.

**Extra Notes: **Holy snaps, long time since my last update! Well, school, computer death and general laziness will do that, ne? Anywho, I promised Dreamy an update for Christmas...and promptly forgot Christmas was a few days away and I had plans already. So y'all get a New Years update. Hope it's acceptable. As usual, Spoilers and Slight AU and language warnings. This one's a bit shorter and wonkier than I'd like but I hope y'all don't mind it.

* * *

The air around the Garage had an optimistic feel to it lately, which Ziggy noticed as he worked in K's lab. Tenaya and K, besides developing the new morpher, had been covertly attempting to work out a proper cure for the Venjix virus. With the both of them working on it, the clock was ticking much slower and things were coming along a lot faster. Really, it seemed life was actually going right for a change, and everyone seemed pleased.

Maybe it was that sense of optimism that gave Ziggy such a bad feeling when he woke up that morning – things just seemed to be going so right that today something HAD to go horribly wrong or take an unexpected unpleasant turn. That or it was the fact that he'd fallen asleep snuggled up to Dillon on the couch after a rather fitful night again. Glancing over at the still sleeping older ranger, the boy shook his head – he really needed to get past this awkward teenager business and fast, it was really making his life difficult.

Quietly, hoping not to wake anyone, he slipped out from under the older man's arm and off of the couch, padding towards the doors to the Ranger Room. It was presently dark and deserted, implying K and Tenaya were still in bed – big shocker there. Ziggy immediately headed to one of the former's many computers to punch in a few keys to a code he used a bit more frequently than would be good to admit. A bit of gold glowing later, and the Series Green morpher was on the floor in front of it's case where the boy could grab it. He darted forward, picking up the object off of the ground and going to curl up in K's chair.

It'd been a bad habit of his since he had figured out the tricks and codes to K's computer. Mainly what Ziggy would do was get the morpher out on days when he felt insecure and like things were going to go wrong, hold onto it for the day and hope things went better than expected. It was irrational, certainly, especially since he really wasn't supposed to use the morpher at his current age, but having it still made him feel better. It was like a reminder of the power he'd once had – the power that'd protected him from going completely out of existence.

"You know you really aren't supposed to be fiddling with that," Tenaya's voice broke through the silence of the early morning, the cyborg leaning lightly on the doorway that led to her and K's workroom. Ziggy turned around immediately and clutched the morpher close, as if it were going to get ripped away from him at any second.

The woman laughed, walking over to slowly ruffle his hair a little, "Relax," she assured him, pulling the Series Purple morpher out of her pocket with a smile, "I'm just as bad." The pair exchanged a look for a moment before laughing quietly – seemed he really wasn't the only one who felt safer with a morpher in close range.

The boy sighed somewhat when his laughter died down, leaning against the chair lightly and watching his friend take a seat on the desk. Tenaya was someone Ziggy felt he could relate more and more to when it came to being a ranger – neither had been completely accepted by the team initially, and they had both been redeemed through the power of the one becoming a child again. He didn't feel as bad having guilty or mean moods around Tenaya – she understood those feelings all too well. Out of all of the team, she knew about needing to do something just to feel safe, even if it was irrational – things like keeping a morpher nearby even when it wasn't usable, or scanning for how active the Venjix virus was, even when they knew it was presently being held at bay by doses of the cure serum they were working on. Plus, she'd turned to the side of good for him, and had been his first friend that wasn't one of the team, and that'd left the woman a special place in Ziggy's heart.

"So what's on your mind, squirt?" the former attackbot asked, watching her younger companion with curiosity. He was an odd one, but a sweet child and if he was worried about something, it was probably best to take notice.

The boy shrugged a bit, "Just got a bad feeling about today. Like stuff's been goin so right, that something has to go wrong." he commented, "I mean, I remember how weird my luck was before. At this rate, we're bound to have something awful happen."

A small snicker escaped the older brunette as she nodded, "You did have weird luck, I'll give you that. But as I remember, you were quite the optimist too." she pointed out, leaning back lightly, "Myself, I have slightly more specific worries." her eyes seemed to cloud over for a few minutes as she looked towards the room she shared with K.

"It's still getting stronger, huh?" Ziggy asked quietly, knowing that look. No matter how many tests they ran, the virus just seemed to come back a lot and some mornings, he knew Tenaya felt like she'd never beat it.

Leaning back lightly, the woman nodded, "Not just that." she admitted, even if it was a big part of her concerns. "There hasn't been any retaliation yet. I know Venjix was acting as if it'd no longer care about me if I didn't succeed in- in my mission," her voice cracked for a second as the cyborg remembered what she'd almost had to do, "but I know that's bullshit. He's just biding his time till he can send someone to finish the job I was meant to and to punish me for failing."

There was a heavy moment of silence between the pair before the creaking of K's chair broke it, making noise as Ziggy stood to wrap his arms around Tenaya's waist and hug the older girl. They both knew just how much danger they were in, but it was so easy to just forget and enjoy life some days. If only making it go away were really that simple though.

"When did my lab become the social bonding area?" came a sleepy mumble from the doorway, causing both to turn and notice K, in her fluffy dog slippers and alphabet pajamas, looking quite like she'd be pleased to go back to bed.

Tenaya laughed a little, "Hey kitten." she mumbled, waving to the other female and earning an odd look from Ziggy. K chose to not remark on the subject and merely wandered over to take Tenaya's arm. "It gets cold when you leave." the young doctor commented, lightly tugging her girlfriend back to bed.

Their younger companion smirked and moved a bit out of the way, "I'll let you lovebirds get back to sleep then." he commented, yawning a bit himself and wondering very much if Dillon was still on the couch and if he could safely go back to curling against the older man without feeling too guilty. Tenaya winked at him once before nudging K to bed, hoping the girl didn't question just what they'd been doing or discussing in here. It'd probably annoy or upset her.

Out in the living room, Dillon was just starting to stir. Well, there went that idea. "Hey," Ziggy mumbled, taking a seat on the end and trying not to look worried or pouty. The older man groggily looked over before a reaching out to ruffle his friend's hair.

"Got up early again?" he asked, standing up and stretching a bit before leaning down to pick up the deck of cards he'd had out the night before. Ziggy still occasionally joined him here on sleepless nights so it wasn't that odd to have the boy nearby when he woke up – then again, before it hadn't been odd at all to have him nearby, just in a different sense.

The smaller male nodded, "Yeah, I was hanging around in the Ranger Room for a bit," he explained, motioning towards the door as he spoke, "No one else is up yet." Well, no one who had come downstairs anyway. Tenaya didn't count as up anymore and neither did K. Dillon seemed to acknowledge this information after a few moments – the man wasn't always a morning person – before heading to the kitchen to see if he could get some juice in peace before Flynn got up and started making a racket with the blender and asking for fruits.

–

The day seemed intent to keep Ziggy on edge, things remaining mostly quiet and uneventful but leaving a lingering feeling of foreboding in the boy. Sure, no one else seemed to have noticed it, but they were also generally a lot more paranoid than he was and things genuinely did seem good enough that they had a leeway to hope. When there was an attack, most of the team wasn't too worried about heading out, having had less trouble beating monsters lately, and having K and Tenaya around to keep things safe. Really, what was there to worry about?

Well, a hell of a lot, sadly, as the entire attack by a large bot outside of the city limits was a diversion to draw the team away from the Garage. Kilobyte had been a little more than eager to take out the failed hybrid and the little runt as well, and had been staging this attack for some time – sending lesser bots to lure the rangers into a false sense of security, taking the stronger parts to build one that would at least keep them occupied till the deal was done. It was a magnificent plan, but then again, Kilobyte did consider himself Venjix's most magnificent attackbot, and expecting less would just be folly.

As Ziggy sat monitoring the rangers' progress while Tenaya and K worked on one of their various projects, they were completely unaware of the dark creeping shadow heading into the room. After all, Kilobyte may not have Tenaya's innate ability to get into the shields without inciting alarms too often, but he did have the sense to enter when there was another attack going on so no one noticed an extra alarm. Especially if he kept things on the quiet end and didn't do something stupid like shoot off radio waves or blasts or summon grinders – which were dead giveaways that there was an extra anomaly in the city.

It wasn't until the blast hit the leg of one of the tables between Tenaya and K that anyone knew something was awry. Turning suddenly, the three stared in horror at the heavily armed attackbot now standing in the labs, grinning darkly at them. "Well, Tenaya 7, it seems you've encountered some new friends rather than completing your mission," one hand moved to slick back the permanently in place metal of his head adornment, "No matter, I'll do you a favor and finish it for you." With that, he turned the gun to Ziggy and blasted, barely giving the child time to dive out of the way and under the desk.

Tenaya and K, by this point, had decided they were having none of this. With a detachable-hand mounted gun, and a cannon fabled for being able to make people naked, the pair whirled on Kilobyte, ready to take the villain out and hopefully stay alive in the process. Had Kilobyte not been expecting this, it probably would have been a damn good defense – but since when was a magnificent plan complete without covering as many options as possible short of the ludicrous?

Well honestly, Kilobyte could be said to miss a few options now and then, but he at least remembered that Tenaya was equipped with a gun attached to a hand that came off, and Dr. K tended to have a large arsenal of weapons, including her preferred big-ass-gun, which is more than can be said of Venjix who passed over those details completely when attempting to formulate a plan initially. Either way, today the items in question were prepared for as the attackbot drew a disruptor of some sort to fire at the two, causing Tenaya's upgrades to go completely haywire.

K had been about to fire at the black and red monstrosity before her when Tenaya's hand promptly shot out and gripped the gun away from K, crushing it beneath her fingers, completely against her will. Both girls watched in horror as she sparked and moved in a jerky fashion, the strange object taking over control of her mechanical parts with the influence of the Venjix virus. "Really, you should know not to betray your creators. It does you no good." Kilobyte remarked with a dark chuckle and a sardonic smile.

"You're not my creators!" Tenaya spat, between infuriated screams as she struggled against her own body, attempting to regain control of it and not sucker punch her girlfriend in the face. Of all the humiliating things – they had lied to her, they had abused her, they had turned her into an abomination with a ticking clock on when she'd lose complete control over her mind and senses, and now this? Cornering her and pitting her against her loved ones? It was almost too much to take!

By this point, K had ducked for cover and was attempting to find a way to set things up to blow Kilobyte out of the room, as she'd done to Tenaya a few times before, when the other had been against them. However, he was a good deal heavier and less distractable than she was, so that was going to take some reconfiguring and time – and the young doctor didn't have much of that.

Ziggy, meanwhile, had barely crawled out from under the smoldering desk chair and was groping around to see if he had any tools handy that might be of some vague help. What he found, however, he didn't expect – the morpher was still in his pocket. He'd forgotten to replace it earlier when they were discovered by K and didn't even realize it was on his person till his hand ran across it in his pocket and he felt a tingle of power and familiarity, suddenly realizing what he had to do.

Jumping up from behind the desk, the boy decided now was a time to do something completely stupid and crazy – a trait he'd gotten very well known for when he was older. "Hey! Kil-a-bitch!" he shouted, pulling out the morpher, "You're forgetting someone!"

As K and Tenaya looked on in horror, both shouting "Ziggy! Don't!" he was already slamming it on his wrist and throwing the rev, shouting the the team's call out of "RPM, GET IN GEAR!" as a burst of green energy surrounded him and flew out over the room.

And then all was black.


	12. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Power Rangers or any related media or characters. The story idea is mostly own – credit to QueenRiley for the inspiriation - but the rest isn't mine, obviously. Everything is copyrighted to its respective owners.

**WARNING!:** This fic will contain slash, femslash and possibly even some het (le gasp). Fic rating might change depending on what I write for later chapters, but I will warn before any mature scenes. Please keep this in mind.

**Extra Notes: ** Gawd, Deeg, where you been? Not updating your fics for months, you bad girl! Naw, I've been busy with school and stuff for the most part, so haven't gotten around to writing. But our favorite blonde's decided to visit again with her season of freedom, and this means I have time to write! This means I'll be continuing The Gypsy, finishing A Second Chance, and probably doing the rest of Anything For Love. Also, I have plans for a ton more fics, so be prepared for that noise! So yes, the Deegers is back, and she's ready to play! As usual, AU warnings! 3

* * *

"Guys! We need to summon zord upgrades!" Scott shouted to his teammates, clutching the wheel as they were hit with yet another heavy blast from the new attackbot. Without series green, they couldn't summon the full Ultrazord, but the team was still doing a good deal of butt-kicking. They were still far from invincible, especially without the zord upgrades which only K could sequence.

"Easier said than done." Dillon growled form his position on the zord's arm, where he was just barely keeping up hitting without getting his vehicle blasted off the megazord.

"I haven't been able to get in touch with K and Tenaya for a bit!" Summer said worriedly, eyes darting all over beneath her helmet. This was not a good time for them to have dashed out to cuddle on the job.

It was then that the Dr.'s voice came through the com, staticy and terrified.

"Rangers! I can't send zord up—s right now – we're under attack –bot was a DIVERSION—Kilobyte is he-"

"DR. K!" the team shouted in unison, Dillon slamming his console to try and bring in a better signal.

"Can't talk for long – Kilobyte—Aya's hardware – she can't control it – going after us—ZIGGY NO!" her voice came to them in bursts, but it was enough to kick the group into high gear, especially that last scream. If this bot was a diversion, that meant the real threat was back inside their own base. And that was the worst place it could be.

–

K felt around in the smoke of her lab, trying to find a purchase on something – anything – and maybe get a grip on what was going on. Last she remembered she was trying to hide from an out-of-control Tenaya and contact the rangers for help, then Ziggy had tried to activate his morpher and everything had flashed green and sort of exploded. She could remember the feeling of power and then things had gone dark.

The short doctor coughed, feeling around till her hand came to rest on a somewhat twitching wrist. K's eyes adjusted to the strange lighting before her and she managed to see Tenaya, lying on the floor, her mechanics sparking and twitching but not doing much more, the girl's head red from where she had bumped it on falling.

K couldn't hear or see Kilobyte anymore from where she was, having partly run back to her room to find the prototype cures in the hopes of helping Tenaya. She'd gotten completely disoriented by the blast following Ziggy's attempt at morphing but seeing her girlfriend like this brought K back to the present enough to fish around till she found the gunlike syringe and a vial of green liquid. The Venjix cure she and Tenaya had been developing was barely at 70 percent, but right now it was her only hope to keep the other girl from trying to kill her once the mechanics recovered – because once those righted themselves, they'd start working without their owner even being conscious.

"I'm sorry, Aya, I'm so sorry," she whispered clutching at the syringe and plunging it in, hitting the trigger to send in the medicine, immediately having to jump back as Tenaya's eyes snapped open and her body began to twitch and shake worse. Had their cure not worked?

_Oh please, oh please, oh please..._

–

"Hard left!" Flynn shouted, swinging the wheel on his section of the Megazord and trying to control the Super Saber.

"Already-"

"-on it!"

The twins were moving their Megazord almost like a dance, it's partner the other rangers in their zord, and the attackbot merely an obstacle in their ultimate show. Both teams were more in-sync than usual right now, all of them concentrating on the fact that this thing needed to die and NOW. They had to get back to keep Kilobyte from having Tenaya kill Ziggy and Dr. K.

As the Super Saber's hit slashed the beast, just missing the other zord due to the quick movement to the left, the already had the beast sparking. Both Zords pulled away then, their ultimate attacks already warmed up and blowing the thing to smithereens.

"Woo!" Gem clapped his hands and cheered from his cockpit.

"Yes!" Gemma pumped both fists.

"Come on guys, no time for celebration." Scott said quickly, his part of the group already decompiling their Megazord. They had to get out of this and back to base already – there was no time to lose.

–

The team rushed through the door, looking terrified after they'd destroyed the attackbot. They arrived, however, right as the doors to the ranger room flew open and Kilobyte was blasted out of it. He was still very much alive but what followed him out was the most shocking.

Ranger Green stood, upgraded Turbo Axe slung over his shoulder like a baseball bat and the somewhat-shorter-than-usual ranger looking about ready to continue the asskicking he'd already been administering.

"Oh hey, you all could make it. Good to know. Ready to join the party?" Ziggy asked, almost sounding too casual for someone who hadn't been able to morph for the past few months.

His friends stared in bewilderment for a few moments before the shock finally wore off. However, before they could fully morph, Kilobyte was making his retreat.

"I'll get you all next time. If there even is a next time – Tenaya 7 might just destroy you all before then." he laughed before dashing out.

Dillon nearly went after him but Scott grabbed his arm.

"We can't right now. We have to go check on Doc K and Aya."

The cyborg looked somewhere between ready to punch Scott and ready to protest, but he finally calmed, the team now able to rush back to the ranger room. Ziggy stood alone still morphed in the hall before following after them. This felt so...strange.

K was curled on the floor clutching an unconscious Tenaya. Her mechanics were no longer twitching and sparking, and she was breathing softly, but it was obvious K was still heavily panicked after what had happened. She looked up at the team with wide eyes full of terror, holding the other girl to her chest.

Summer, having gotten used to being 'team mommy' at this point, knelt down and carefully hugged K some, which reassured the smaller girl enough to have her loosen her grip on Tenaya, so Gem and Gemma could move the unconscious young lady to the lab table.

"What happened?" Dillon demanded sharply, the rest of the team flinching back a bit at his tone. Now was not a good time to be anywhere near the man, but they didn't have much of a choice if they wanted to know what was going on.

The dark haired girl took a few moments to get back her voice enough to speak, "Kilobyte brought a conduit for the Venjix Virus. It was able to take over her body from this range, even if her mind was still free to fight it." K seemed to lock up after saying that, still frightened by the prospect of what had happened.

Summer rocked her softly and tried to reassure the younger woman, but it was obvious there was only so much that could be done.

After a few gulps of air, the doctor tried to continue her explanation, "It happened so fast – Ziggy tried to morph and then...then it was all dark and when I could see again, Aya had fallen and she was out, but her body was still trying to move. I had to use the serum on her – it was my only choice or else it was going to take her over all the way."

"Serum? What serum?" the black ranger demanded, eyes flashing between his sister on the table and their mentor. The two of them had been working on plenty of things together lately and getting a good deal more close than he thought was a good idea, but till now he had been pretty sure it was all mostly safe stuff.

K looked up at Dillon and seemed too terrified to speak. If she told him, he'd just be even more furious, and there'd be no solving anything. But if she didn't...

"They've been working on a serum to cure the Venjix Virus." the voice cut through the air and snapping the thin cord of building tension between the doctor and the black ranger.

Dillon's eyes immediately snapped to the source and found himself staring at a very calm and very teenaged Ziggy Grover. His former boyfriend was still smaller than he was, still young looking, but the chubbiness of childhood had gone from his cheeks, and his eyes held a cold sharpness that had never been there as an adult. It was something that in that instant Dillon found both beautiful and terrifying – because it was at that moment he realized the creature before him wasn't just his old boyfriend anymore. The old Ziggy never would, nor could, stare him down like that.

It was just an instant, that hardened look, and it was all it took to make Dillon back off. As soon as he had, the look was gone and Ziggy smiled, walking over to help K and Summer up. "It was something necessary to be developed, and at the time, necessary to test. She's still breathing so we can tell it didn't kill her, and she's not sparking anymore, so that's at least a good sign. The only options at this point are pretty positive ones – they've either cured it, or they've done something that will work in the interim."

K seemed a little unnerved by how Zigs was talking – prior to this stage, he'd been smaller than her, but now, he was starting to gain that height he'd had as an adult. He was starting to look like his old self again, but he had a different air about him – the air of someone who'd led a different life than their old Ziggy. It had been that air, that change to him that had overpowered Ranger Black with just a look, and it was that change that left her wondering about where she stood with him.

The brunette, however, grinned and turned back to the team, "Now, I think we should all just chill out – we've all had one hell of a day, and you guys worked hard out there. Why don't you go relax or something and I'll see about whipping up some dinner?" He said this smoothly, hands behind his back in that tone Summer used when she wanted the team to listen to her, and presenting what the team was supposed to do in the manner Scott used to try and diffuse things when they got bad.

The red ranger recognized just where the other got this from and laughed, throwing an arm around Ziggy's shoulders, "You're getting good at this." he joked, "But I'm still team leader."

"Of course you are, that's why you need a break." the younger male teased back, heading for the living room. Scott chuckled, especially when Ziggy poked his head back into the room to add something else, "You're teaching me to drive later."

Flynn grinned at that proposal, turning and raising an eyebrow to Gem and Gemma before dashing off, the pair of them chasing him in a game of tag that was most likely going to end upstairs. Scott watched them go but didn't leave himself till Summer walked up and linked arms with him.

"Let's go for a walk." she suggested gently, eying the darkening sky outside with a thoughtful expression.

"We can be back in time for dinner," her boyfriend agreed, glancing back at Dillon for a moment as they left, "Don't dwell on it so much, Dill. Just go chill out, man." he called. Scott knew he had to get the other to leave before he did – because after that, Scott was going to be too distracted with other things to think about what the rest of the team was going. From the look in Summer's eyes, she had some things she wanted to discuss.

Dillon looked for a moment at his unconscious sister, thinking of protesting, before his eyes returned once more to K. She looked like a small animal like that, meek and timid rather than her usual rough and cold self. He sighed then, shaking his head and walking out to go sit on the couch, head in his hands. The man just could not win some days.

K slowly walked over to take hold of Tenaya's hand, looking sadly at the unconscious girl, "Wake up soon, Aya. I need you." she whispered gently and rested her head on the other girl's chest for a moment, just needing to cry.

When she did, however, she felt the other female's free hand – the one K wasn't clutching softly – move to pet her hair. The doctor looked up in shock and Aya smiled sleepily at her.

"You're crying again, kitten. What have I told you about that?" she whispered, and immediately grasped her girlfriend into a tender embrace.

–

In the living room, Dillon was on the couch, trying to avoid thinking about what was going on. His sister was unconscious (as far as he knew), and his old lover was now a somewhat different person, and the rest of the team didn't seem to care or even notice! It was all so overwhelming, and he just didn't know what to feel about this. Ziggy being awkward around him for the most part prior to this didn't help either.

It was about this point that a hand gently rested on his shoulder, squeezing softly. Dillon looked up, startled, and found himself staring at the younger male of whom he'd been thinking. There was nothing of that previous awkwardness in his touch, in his eyes, or in his mannerisms. It was like it had evaporated with his growing up. Which just set off Dillon's mood more – what, was he no longer worth worrying over?

"Dillon, you're going to give yourself a headache if you keep turning red like that." Ziggy teased, lightly moving his hand from the older man's arm to pat his cheek.

The older ranger blinked a bit, not entirely sure if this behavior was what he thought it was. Was...he being flirted with? Ziggy hadn't been that much of a flirt before – he'd always been too timid about it, which had bugged the hell out of his lover, seeing as it seemed like the younger man was afraid to be romantic with him in anything other than a physical way.

The teen before him rolled his eyes under those long bangs and grabbed Dillon's arms, pulling him up. "Come on, you're helping me in the kitchen. You aren't allowed to sit and pout on the couch anymore."

Pouting. That word brought the other back to how the child version of Zigs had started dubbing his 'brooding'. Dillon couldn't help but smile at that, fully standing and following the other.

"I'm not a very good cook and I don't like handing people things." the black ranger told his companion with a light smile.

Ziggy grinned at that, "I'll find a use for you, I'm sure. There's always something useful for a handsome six foot something cyborg to do, no matter where he is."

Dillon chuckled. Okay that was DEFINITELY flirting. "Watch your mouth, kid. You're still jailbait right now."

The teen made a mock innocent face at that, "Moi? Flirting with you? Really, I think you've been reading Summer's copy of Lolita too much, pretty boy." and with that he flicked him with a wet towel, "You can do the dishes."

With another roll of his eyes, Dillon took the towel and moved towards the sink. As he went to pick up the first dish, he heard the other's soft voice behind him.

"You'll have your old boyfriend back soon enough. You just have to be patient with me for a while longer." It was quiet, still holding that old shred of nervousness from before, and hints of the timidity he'd had as a child.

After a short pause, Dillon answered him, "I'm not sure I want my old boyfriend back. I think I like the new one I'm getting to know."

Ziggy stopped to look at him as he said this before he caught the older ranger's eye and the smile on his face. Smiling back, the boy turned back to his cooking. "Well, that's certainly good to know."


End file.
